Short Attention Span Theatre
by Danni-2005
Summary: A Collection of One-shots. All the old favorites and some new. Newest Story: Remember.
1. A Night To Remember

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A Night to Remember

Summary: Wedding Nights are supposed to be special. Watch Danny, with the help of Tucker and Todd, botch the whole thing up.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

Dedication: To Kim, who told me her wedding night was going to be perfect and asked how I wanted mine to which I responded, "I hope it's retched!"

Sam lay the tiny sleeping figure down in the portable crib next to the other infant. She stared down at the tiny little face, lips sucking at some imaginary dinner he was enjoying in his dream. She turned at the sound of her now sister-in-laws sigh. "I'm sorry I drug you up here, Sam. It's just impossible to get all three ready for bed by myself. And there was no way I could get that good-for-nothing husband of mine away from the bar."

"Todd's not that bad," Sam laughed.

Jazz glanced up from feeding a child. "Of course he's not. But it's your wedding reception! You should be the one down there with Danny, not him."

Jessica's little blue-green eyes popped open and she started to fuss. Sam scooped her up quickly before she could wake little James, who they had just gotten to sleep. Sam didn't know how Jazz could ever raise triplets. Sam would have died. She bounced the baby on her hip while she turned back to Jazz. "It's fine. Everybody had left except the wedding party anyway. I'm sure no ones even noticed that I'm gone."

Jazz put Jeremy into his little footed pajamas and he kicked his feet happily. "I doubt that, but I can't tell you how much you're helping. I'm apologizing in advance for when one of them gets sick on your wedding dress."

Sam laughed as little Jessica cooed her eyes drifting shut. There was a soft knock on the door. Sam got up and opened it. "Thought I'd find you both here," Maddie said, slipping in and closing the door. "You should have asked me to come play grandma instead of dragging Sam away." She scolded slightly, taking the infant from Sam's arms.

Jazz shrugged helplessly, patting the little boy's back. "I was desperate, and she offered."

Maddie sighed. "Well, Sam, I think that you should probably go back down. Everyone's wondering where you ran off too. Danny would have sworn you'd been abducted."

The newlywed rolled her eyes. "I told him where I was going."

Jazz laughed as Sam opened the door. "Welcome to Marriage. They remember anything you don't want them too, and forget everything else."

* * *

Sam had barely entered the reception hall when her mother latched onto her arm. "Where were you?" she hissed. 

Sam swallowed nervously. "Helping put the triplets to bed."

"You do not leave your own wedding, Samantha. That was an insult to your guest." Sam rolled her eyes. She hated etiquette and she wanted to tell her mother to take a hike.

"I'll remember that next time I get married," she muttered under her breath.

Her mother shot daggers at her. "What?"

Sam put on her brightest smile. "I'm going to go find Danny." She wrenched her arm away from her mom. She rolled her eyes. Couldn't her mom just pretend to like her, just for one day?

She looked around not seeing Danny, Tucker, or Todd anywhere. Sarah , Tucker's steady girlfriend, brushed past her. Sam caught the girls elbow. "Where'd the guys go?"

Sarah giggled. "You mean you missed it? Danny was getting really out of it and saying some weird things about being a ghost," she laughed. "Talk about strange. I guess he's just like his dad when you get him drunk. They took him up to your suite."

Sam's violet eyes went wide. "No," she whispered, completely mortified.

"Huh?" Sarah said, her face a mask of confusion.

Sam put on a fake smile. "Nothing. He just doesn't hold his liquor well. I probably better go up there."

Sarah grinned slyly at her. "Have a nice night."

Sam just nodded, spinning on her heels. She got to the elevator and pushed the up button. It opened and Tucker ran straight into her, causing her to fall backwards. "Sam! Thank God. I've been trying to find you for forever." He reached down and helped her up.

She grabbed Tucker by the lapels of his Tux and yanked his face within inches of hers. "Please don't tell me you got my husband so smashed he blabbed his secret to the whole world."

Tucker swallowed nervously at the anger just radiating from Sam. "Not me, no." He paused. "In fact, I just helped. Getting him 'smashed' was Todd's idea." Sam could have torn him to pieces.

Her grip shifted to his throat, despite the fact that Tuck was a good five inches taller than she was. "Tucker Landon Foley, you take me to my husband before I mutilate you."

"Gladly," he choked out and Sam released his throat. She marched into the elevator, Tuck following meekly behind, hitting the close button for the door. Though Tucker was taller and stronger than Sam, he had learned very early in his life that an angry Sam was something to avoid at all cost.

The door slid to the left after what seemed like an eternity and Sam gestured for Tucker to lead the way. He couldn't help but cringe at the murderous look in her eye. He couldn't help but noticed how she was drumming long, French-dipped fingernails against the white silk of her dress. Tuck could help but swallow uneasily. This was one adventure he was not going to come out of unscathed.

Sam followed down to the honeymoon suite where Tuck pulled Danny's key card out of his pocked and slipped it into the lock. Sam followed him in. Danny was literally laying on the floor leaning against the wall. Sam walked over and stared down at him, trying to swallow her anger.

He stared at her for a while with a blank look on his face, his eyes looking glassy. Finally he broke out into a grin as if he had just noticed her. "Hey Sammy. Hows we doin'," he slurred.

Sam's eyes went wide. Her new husband was laying there, reeking of alcohol, three sheets to the wind, on _her _wedding night. Sam didn't know whether to scream or cry. From behind her came her brother-in-laws voice. "Well, Sam, Tuck and I had best be going."

Sam turned around and kicking of her high-heels, took of down the hall screaming unquotable things at them. In hindsight they must have made quite a sight. Sam, barefoot in her wedding dress, chasing the two groomsmen down the hall as fast as the three of them could run, both Todd and Tucker screaming at the guy in the elevator to wait for them. They both lunged in the door and started jamming the closed button as rapidly as they could.

The door went shut. Sam fell limply against it and pounded it with her fist. "Tucker Landon Foley and Todd Alex Fisher! You are both dead men when I find you!" She screamed it at the rapidly dropping elevator car. She turned and looked back at the open door to her suite where Danny was standing, waving as if she didn't know where he was.

Sam sighed. She had a feeling this was going to be the longest night of her life.

* * *

"Sammy, Sammy! Look!" Sam raised her head up from her hands and watched her husband, currently in his persona Danny Phantom. Danny giggled before turning his attention back to the wall he was facing. 

"You put your left hand in," he sang, putting his intangible arm through the wall. "You put you left hand out," he pulled his arm out. "You put your left hand in and you shake it all about." He stopped a dumbfounded look coming over his features. He fell backwards, rolling his head back to stare at her sitting on the bed. "I forgot the rest," he slurred.

Sam couldn't stop the tears that welled up in her eyes. This is how things had been going for the last forty-five minutes. Sam lay her head back down on the bed she was laying on face down. She tried to ignore the small sobs that rocked her shoulders.

She felt a hand on her back. "Watz duh madder?" he asked gently. Sam sat up slightly and wiped her eyes. Staring back at her was the blue-eyed, dark-haired young man she'd fallen for.

"I'm just having a bad night," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

His sky blue eyes showed concern, despite the muddled look in them. "I'm sorry, Sammy."

She sat up wiping at her tears. "It's just not turning out like I thought it would."

Danny opened his mouth to say something. He quickly closed it and hopped up and ran to the bathroom, which was followed shortly by retching. Sam got up to help him before quickly looking down at her dress.

She went over to the armoire in the corner of the room. She traced the corner of a box lying in the bottom, containing the outfit for her wedding night that had been a gift from her college roommate, Mandy. It was gorgeous but sexy and sultry was _not _how you dressed to mop up your husband's face after alcohol poisoning had set in.

She nothing else hung in the closet, leaving her little choice. She still bypassed the box settling for just getting out of the dress at the moment. She slipped it off tucking it on a hanger in the corner. She looked around for something to wear.

With nothing coming to her, she wandered over to the bed and threw back the comforter. She yanked off the satin flat sheet wrapping it around her. They weren't going to be using the bed anyway at the current rate. Sam flipped the comforter back up and holding up the bottom of the sheet so she didn't trip, entered the bathroom.

Danny was laying with his cheek against the rim of the toilet and Sam fervently hoped it was cleaner than she suspected it was. She bent down and brushed sweet tangled bangs back from closed eyes. He moaned. "I feel lousy."

Sam bit her cheek. "I would expect so." She leaned him back and slipped of his jacket.

The sat there in silence for a moment. He looked so miserable, she didn't have the heart to yell. Sam turned and started to unfasten his tie, intent on saving as much of his Tux as possible if he got sick again. "Are you mad at me?" He sounded like he did when he was seven.

She sighed, dropping the tie into her lap and staring at her hands, the new gold band glinting beside her engagement ring. "Not mad exactly, just…" Frustrated, disappointed, upset flitted across her mind but none of them seemed exactly right. "I don't know."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Leaning his head on her bare shoulder. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault but the words wouldn't come. She just weakly laid her head against his. "You still love me, right?"

The vulnerability in his voice as he asked tore at her. She gently lay a finger under his chin. "I'll always love you, Danny."

He stared at her, blue eyes serious. "I love you too, Sam." With that Danny leaned forward and got sick again.

* * *

The tie hit the chair violently, followed by the jacket and vest. Lastly Sam chucked the cummerbund on top of the pile. She looked in the full-length mirror next to the chair. She looked horrible. Many strands of coiled hair escaped the elegant up-do, which was starting to come lose. Clad in a bed sheet tied in front of her, with Mascara streaks down her face. She looked like anything but a girl on her wedding night. 

She pulled out a few bobby pins and watched more locks of hair tumble down against her dirty face. She walked over to the little vanity and started making a pile of pins out muttering to her self as she went. "We've been waiting for this night for forever. We agreed to wait and what does he do? Gets himself totally drunk." She threw a pin onto the pile with a little more force than necessary.

She finished and peeked into the bathroom. Danny was passed out lying sprawled against the bathroom floor. Sam sighed. "I, Samantha Emily Manson," she picked up his wrists and yanked. "do hereby take Daniel James Fenton," she yanked again. "To be my lawfully wedded husband."

She adjusted her grip on his wrist and took a deep breath. "To have and to hold from this day forward." She finally stepped outside the bathroom. "For better or _worse_." She pulled Danny's about six inches closer to the door. "For richer or poorer," she tripped over the back part of the sheet almost falling. "In **_sickness_** and in health," she jammed poor Danny's head into the side of the bathroom doorway. "To love and to cherish," she fell to her knees, dropping Danny's arms on either side of her.

She looked at him, tears of frustration welling up in violet eyes for the umpteenth time that night. She reached forward and gently brushed his bangs back. "For as long as we both shall live."

* * *

Sam didn't even bother glancing at the clock. She picked up the phone and dialed the front desk. It rang three times. "Hello," came a young feminine voice. 

"Yes," Sam sighed. "I would like the room number for Tucker Foley, please."

There was silence for a moment. "Um, ma'am, I'm afraid for I can't give you that. For security reasons."

"But he's my best friend. He was the best man in my wedding party."

"Well," the girl drawled. "In that case, wouldn't you know his room number?"

Sam almost growled. "Than may I have his room phone number?"

"I'm afraid you can't call him this late."

Sam gritted her teeth. She took a deep breath and emphasized each word, as if talking to a very stupid child. "It is an emergency."

The girl seemed annoyed. "Of what nature?"

Sam screamed and slammed the phone down.

She scribbled a note to where she had gone and threw it down on her unconscious husband so that if he woke up he wouldn't worry. And with that Sam pounded against the door.

* * *

The pounding on the door woke Jermey Fisher, whose wailing instantly woke Jessica and James. Todd shot up and glared daggers at the door. "I'll kill them," he muttered. "Who ever it is I'll kill them." Jazz grabbed his shoulder. 

"How 'bout I get the door and you get the kids?" He looked over at her before heading towards the crib, grumbling under his breath. Sam peaked thought the little viewing glass in the door. Jazz unbolted and opened the door. "Sam! What's wrong."

Upon hearing that Todd glanced over his shoulder as Sam stepped inside. "Everything," she said shakily. "He's finally passed out. I need to get him in bed and since Todd was the one who got him drunk—"

"Wait a second," she whirled around staring furiously at her husband. "You did what," she bit out.

Todd shot a look at Sam. "I just thought the kid needed a good time."

"Let me get this straight," she started slowly, her voice dangerously low. "You thought my brother needed a good time on his wedding night. So you got him so drunk that poor Sam has just had to play mother! Right?" she asked Sam, who nodded helplessly her shoulders shaking. It sounded so horrible when Jazz put it like that.

"I—" he started.

"Have ruined my brother and best friends wedding night! This is there one special night, and you destroyed it. You are going to go put Danny in bed and what ever else Sam needs done. And then you'll find out the real meaning of punishment."

Todd looked down, guilt all over his face. "I don't have a key." Sam lifted a shaking hand and held hers out. Todd dutifully took it.

"The babies—"

Jazz had pure murder written on her face. "_I_'ll worry about the babies. You go fix what you've done." When he left, Sam broke down and cried. Jazz slipped an arm around her shoulder.

"You want to tell me what happened?"

Sam wiped at her eyes. "Just everything is going wrong. He was so drunk and then he started getting sick and I had nothing to wear except for my clothes for tomorrow so I'm running around in a sheet."

Upon hearing Sam upset the children's screams went up a pitch. Jazz got up and scooped up a son in each arm. She looked pleadingly at Sam, who nodded and picked up Jessica. Jazz bounced a child on each hip. She nodded over to a suitcase in the corner. "Open it up and get yourself out a pair of Pajamas. There nothing fancy but there better than that sheet."

Sam did as she was told and slipped on an old baseball shirt with three-quarter length sleeves and a pair of pajama pants. She smiled gratefully over at Jazz, laying all three now sleeping children back in the crib. "I hope it gets better, Sam." Jazz said, hugging her new sister.

Sam took a shaky breath. "I don't think it can get worse."

* * *

The elevator opened to let Sam on the same time it let Todd off. "I'm sorry, Sam." 

"It's not your fault."

He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, it is. Tuck warned me he didn't hold a drink well, so what do I do? Get him plastered. I'm really sorry."

Sam sighed. "Feeling sorry about it won't change it now," she said softly, shifting her grip on the sheet she was carrying.

"I'll think of something to make it up to you guys."

Sam gave him a tired smile. "As long as you leave him sober for the honeymoon, I think I can forgive you."

He grinned at her, obviously not sure what to say. "Goodnight, Sam."

"Night, Todd."

* * *

Sam opened the door to see Danny lying at an angle across the bed. At the moment, she was too brain dead to complain. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night, finishing last minute things for the wedding, and tonight had been more emotionally taxing than she was prepared for. She dumped the clothes onto the ground and curled up in the chair. There was no way she could sleep on the bed with Danny lying the way he was. 

Sam stared off at her husband. Hopefully he wouldn't have too bad of a hangover in the morning. After tonight that was the last thing she wanted to deal with. She laughed slightly at the prospect of spending her first night as a married woman in a Victorian high back chair. "Happy wedding night, Sam," she whispered before she closed her eyes.

* * *

Sam awoke with a start to someone shaking her shoulders. "Hmm." She popped open violet eyes to see Danny's confused face staring back at her. He stood back up as Sam stretched. "'Morning," she yawned. 

"Hey gorgeous," he smiled, rubbing her knee. "Can I ask a really stupid question? Why don't I remember anything that happened last night?"

She stretched, wrapping her right leg around her left ankle and stretching her neck. "Not surprising. You were pretty drunk."

"What happened," he asked, kneeling down in front of the chair.

Sam resolutely stared at her feet. "You got drunk. Said some stuff about being a ghost. Todd and Tucker drug you back up here. I listened to you talk nonsense for about an hour, moped vomit off your face and then you passed out." She glanced up.

Danny looked absolutely mortified. "Please tell me your joking." A hurt look floated over Sam's face and tears welled up again. "Oh my God. Sam, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," she said, the tears starting to come.

He slid up onto the chair pulling her into his lap. "I'm sorry. I know I can never make this up to you."

She leaned her head against his chest just listening to his heartbeat. "It fits in some strange way. We've never been normal. Why start now?"

Danny just played with a little piece of her hair and stayed silent. After what seemed like an eternity. Sam finally spoke. "Danny?"

"Hmm?"

Sam smiled slightly. "You owe me one heck of a honeymoon."


	2. Daddy's Little Girl

_**Daddy's Little Girl**_

**Summary: Danny and his daughter have a little heart to heart**

**Rating: G**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.**

**Dedication: To my dad and his "Lesson Chair" which I spent far too many hours in when I was six.**

Dark brows grew together in frustration as she prepared herself yet again to climb the kitchen drawers like a ladder. She made it up three before the sharp edges on the handles hurt her feet too badly and she dropped to the ground. She reached up and groped around the counter some more. She bit her lip at discovering her mother had put the cookies at the back of the counter.

She padded quickly to the door and looked over into the living room and up the stairs. Upon seeing that the coast was clear she darted back over. The little blue eyes drifted shut and the girl counted quietly. "One, two, three." Little eyes snapped open and were now a neon shade of green thought nothing else about her appearance had changed.

She stared hard as if she could see through the counter to the bag of double stuffed Oreo cookies sitting just out of reach. Mommy could be so mean sometimes. Little green eyes narrowed in concentration and she held her hands up and wiggled her fingers in a come-to-me motion. The bag around the container rattled and began inching forward. "Come on, come to Carrie."

After about ten painstaking seconds the bag was finally at the edge and started to tip over when suddenly the jerky motions were replaced with one smooth one as the bag floated up in the air and went right over her head. Carrie Fenton tipped her head back and watched the yummy cookies float right into her Daddy's waiting open hand.

Carrie spun around. "Hi daddy," she said in a sing song voice, twisting her shoulders, and slapping on her most charming innocent smile. His face remained grumpy looking. "You know what my teacher told me? She said if you keep your face like that it will stick." Daddy didn't stop looking grumpy.

"Change your eyes back." He didn't sound happy.

Carrie sighed and closed her eyes, counted to three, nodding with each number. As she opened her eyes, the cookies were gone from daddy's hand, and it was stretched out. The six-year-old marched over and put her hand in his. "How was your day? Mine was good other than I'm in trouble now." Daddy didn't smile but his eyes got nicer. "We're going to the lesson chair, aren't we?"

"Mm-hmm."

Carrie looked down at the carpet as her dad led her over to the red recliner in the corner, that she called the lesson chair. Cause whenever her dad sat her down there he said 'You have to learn a lesson from this'. Carrie decided she didn't like that chair. "Can't we just pretend we did it and I can go play? I mean I've had a lot of lessons so we've probably talked about it before."

She looked up as her dad just sat down and pulled her into his lap. "You _have _had this lesson before but you didn't listen so we're going to have it again."

"I think that's a waste of your time. I mean your really busy and—"

Daddy shook his head. "You can save it for your teacher, Care, cause it's not going to work on me."

She sighed. "That's just because you're filled with frustration. You need to take Advil." Her father shot her a strange look. She leaned up and whispered in his ear. "I saw that on TV."

Daddy rolled his blue eyes. "Carrie Samantha Fenton—"

"That's my name when I'm in trouble, isn't it?"

Daddy ignored her. "What have your mother and I told you about using your powers?"

"I forget," she murmered, squirming in her dad's lap.

His eyes got angry again. "We told you not to use them unless it's an emergency."

Little dark hair popped up, her high little ponytail flipped forward, making her look very much like her mother.

"But it was a 'mergency! I was gonna shrivel up and die, I was so hungry! And the cookies were _way_ back there," she said throwing up her arms for emphasis.

"Carrie!" The little girl bit her lip and stared at her Daddy's arm so she wouldn't have to look at his face. "We've discussed this. Tell me what an emergency is."

"When somebody's hurt or going to get hurt." The sentence came back sounding very rehearsed.

Her dad put a finger under her chin and made her look up at him. "Were the Oreos going to hurt anyone?"

Carrie sat for a moment. "Maybe..."

"Carrie," her dad warned.

She sighed, sky blue eyes drifting to stare at a corner of the ceiling. "No. They probably wouldn't hurt anyone but you never know. Those nummy cookies can be very tricky."

Her dad shut his eyes and took a deep breath, murmuring something that sounded suspiciously like "Why do I even try?"

"Are we done with my lesson yet? Cause I want to watch my Sesame Street tape."

Danny sighed. "Why not? I'm going to have to have this talk with you a million more times."

Blue eyes blinked. "Is a million more than seventeen? Cause that's as high as I can count without messing up."

Her dad laughed. "A little bit more."

"Oh," she looked down at her lap.

Her dad hugged her and kissed her bangs. "Just go watch Big Bird, alright?"

"Oh, I don't like Big Bird today." She crawled out of her dad's lap. "I like Bert and Ernie."

Her dad nodded slowly with a smile. "I see. Ernie was always my favorite anyway."

"Really? What was Mommy's?"

Danny smiled. "Oscar the Grouch. She patterned her life after him."

Carrie cocked her head to the side, her little ponytail flipping to the side. "What's that mean?"

"Nothing," Danny said with a smirk.

The little Fenton wrinkled her nose. "Bert and Ernie are way better anyway."

"Of course they are," Danny grinned as he watched his little girl put the tape in and then run all the way across the room to get the remote control to turn the VCR on. He sighed thinking of all the work he had had to bring home tonight. He got out of the chair and started for the door.

She dropped herself to the floor in front of the TV. "Daddy," she called falling onto her back, twisting her neck at an awkward angle to stare at her dad.

"Yeah, Princess?"

She bit her lip for a moment before answering. "I'm still hungry."


	3. Happily Ever After

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Happily Ever After

Summary: Babysitting his sister's four and three fourths year old reminds Danny of how he and his best friends met.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

Dedication: This one's going out by request to **shaadra-shadow****, who emailed me wanting to know how Danny, Tucker, and Sam met.**

The person at the door of the dorm room knocked harder. "I said it's open!" Danny hollered over his shoulder not getting up from his computer, his back to the door. It flung open and a little figure darted over and jumped in his lap. Danny gasped as the air was knocked out of him. "Hi Katie." The girl giggled mumbled something into his T-shirt.

"Katie!" came the voice from the doorway. "Don't pounce on people." Danny spun the chair around.

"Hey Jazz," he grinned.

She fell back against the doorway and ran a hand through her now short hair. "Hey Danny," she sighed.

"You don't look so great," he commented, grabbing his niece's hand that was creeping along his face.

"I got called into work late tonight. One of the girls I'm working with tried to overdose."

Danny hissed through his teeth. His sister worked at a recovery home for suicidal teenage girls. When stuff like this happened it meant an all-nighter for her. "That can't be good."

She sighed shifting a Little Mermaid book bag to the other arm. "It's not. I should have called first. But I have to leave my phone open so the clinic can reach me."

"It's fine," he assured her. "Sam's coming over but other than that I'm not doing much."

"You had plans with Sam? I'm so sorry. I shouldn't' have imposed." Jazz looked ashamed suddenly. "I didn't mean to cut in on personal time. I mean you shouldn't have your niece hanging around if your girlfriends coming."

Danny laughed. "It' not a problem, Jazz. She's coming to edit my final paper for Econ. It's probably better for my paper this way," he grinned. Then frowned as he noticed the four-year-old trying to get into the drawers under his bed. "Hey squirt. I'm pretty sure there's something alive in there. Might want to watch out," he said mysteriously. The four-year old turned to him wide-eyed.

Jazz laughed. "Well, I hate to run. But I really need to get to work. You'll call me if there's a problem?"

Danny turned his attention back to his 23-year-old sister. "Don't I always? She'll be fine."

Jazz smirked as she shut the door, "I know she will. I'm worried about you."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was twenty-five minutes later and Danny and Tucker's dorm room looked like it had been a battlefield. Danny had given up about twenty-three minutes ago to try and keep up with her. He finally managed to catch the screaming four-year-old and wrestle the pajama top onto her. "Come on, Katie. I've let you stay up ten minutes extra."

"Ten more minutes?" the four-year-old whined. Danny squatted down so he was at eye level with her. He shook his head.

"Five more minutes?" Katie pleaded.

Danny scooped up the little girl and dropped her unceremoniously on his bunk, which happened to be the bottom one. "Not even one more minute."

"Story?" she asked, hazel eyes glinting up at him.

"Nope, You have to go to sleep so I can clean this place up before Sam," he was interrupted by a rap on the door. "Speak of the devil and she shall come," he murmured softly. "It's open," he called.

Sam opened the door and poked her head in. "Wow this place is a disaster zone."

Danny smirked up at her from where he was sitting on the edge of the bunk. He waved vaguely to the small auburn haired girl. "And this is the disaster."

Sam's face instantly lit up. "Hey, baby." Sam had instantly taken to Katie, and Danny swore sometimes that was the only reason she didn't just give up on him totally was that then she would never get to see his niece again.

"Sam!" screeched the little preschooler who threw herself into Sam's arms. Sam instantly scooped her up and situated Katie on her hip. "Look at my PJ's!"

"Very cute," Sam almost cooed. Danny didn't even know Sam _could _coo until Katie was born.

Danny sighed putting his hands on his knees and grinning at the picture the two made together. "They should be," he pushed himself up of the bed. "Took me fifteen minutes to get her in them."

Sam laughed. "Come on, Danny. You know you like playing mommy."

Danny smiled as he walked over toward his computer to pull up his paper. "Oh! I love it! It's about as fun as a root canal."

"What's a root canal?"

"It's something they do at the dentist." Sam explained simply.

The little four-year-old scrunched up her nose and buried her face in Sam's shoulder. "Dentist are mean. You're weird, Uncle Danny."

Danny smiled at her over his shoulder; the computer screen's glow cast strange shadows over his features. "You have no idea." To top it off he made his eyes turn green.

Katie burst into tears and clutched Sam. "Danny!" Sam scolded.

"Sorry. Come here, sweetie." He got up and took her away from Sam. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he rocked her until her sobs subsided and her breathing slowed and her eyes drooped shut.

Sam looked over her shoulder from just having fixed a run-on sentence. "You'll make a great dad, Danny."

He kissed the top of Katie's head and grinned over at her. "I hope that's not you're way of telling me something."

Sam rolled her violet eyes and went back to scrolling. "Last time I checked you had to sleep with them for that to happen."

Danny did an overly dramatized confused look. "Did we cover that in sex ed?"

Sam just laughed. "Hey, can you put Katie down and come tell me what you are trying to say here."

"Sure." Danny slipped her into the covers and grabbed the chair from Tuck's computer and sat down next to Sam. They didn't even get five minutes of work done before a little figure pulled herself up into her uncle's lap. "Thought you were asleep?"

She ignored him and stared at Sam. "Can I have my story now?" she asked.

Sam glanced at the pair, an eyebrow raised. "Uncle Danny does stories?"

The sarcasm was lost on the little girl. "The best."

"By all means," Sam said. "Go ahead."

Danny sighed looking back and forth between the two girls. "I'm cornered, aren't I."

Sam laughed softly. "If she doesn't make you, I will. If that's what you were asking."

"Sam's mean," he said to the little girl. "You're lucky that she's not your aunt."

"But she's going to be." Sam stopped typing mid-word and turned to glare daggers at Danny, who held his hands up helplessly.

He swallowed and turned back to Katie. "Who told you that?"

"Mommy did," she stated very matter-of-factly.

Danny looked at his niece for a minute before responding. "Tell mommy that Uncle Danny said that she can sho—"

"Danny!" Sam cut him off.

"I was going to say 'keep her nose out of other people's business'."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Of course you were."

"Story!" The preschooler cut them off.

"Okay, okay, okay." Danny scooped her up bridal style and carried her back to bed. "What story do you want?"

"How you met Sam."

Danny looked slightly flustered. "Wouldn't you rather have something with a princess in it?"

The girl flashed him a grin. "Make Sam a princess."

Danny nodded. "I guess I can do that."

"Once upon a time," Danny started. "A long, long, long, long, long time ago," Sam shot him a look. "There was a little princess about your age. And her name was Samantha. Except she didn't like Samantha, she just liked Sam so that's what she made everyone call her." He grinned over at his girlfriend, who was staring at something on the screen. "At least she would of if she had any friends." It earned him a glare.

Danny smirked at her charmingly and continued, turning his attention back to the girl who was listening attentively. "Princess Sam came from a rich kingdom, so she went to a different preschool than us common children," Danny gestured dramatically to himself. He didn't have to look to know that Sam was rolling her eyes. "So when Princess Sam started Kindergarten, she didn't have any friends yet. Which was very lucky for one little common child, me."

"Why?" Katie blinked hazel eyes.

"Because, if she had rich friends Princess Sam would never have talked to a poor little boy like me."

"That's not true." Sam crossed over and dropped lightly onto Danny's lap.

"Great," Danny muttered. "Now she's within smacking distance." Sam swatted him gently on the arm. "See! See how mean she is, Katie? She hits your poor uncle for no reason."

"You deserved it." Said the four-year-old with a toothy grin.

He looked back and forth between the two of them. "This is one of those girl things, isn't it?"

"Story!"

"Yes, Danny, story," Sam smirked over her shoulder at him.

"Where were we," he thought for a moment. "Ah yes. So Princess Sam didn't know any other kids and all for the first few weeks of kindergarten, she sat by herself at the block table during free time. She didn't want to talk to anybody else."

"But," Sam added. "It's not like anyone talked to her, either."

Danny laughed. "Guilty as charged. Anyway, poor Princess Sam had a secret. She was scared of the dark."

"Like me!" Katie gushed.

"Just like you," Danny said, reaching down and tickling her tummy for a moment. "But see unlike you Princess Sam was scared to tell anybody. So every nap time they'd turned the lights off, and every nap time, she would curl up in a little ball and try not to cry."

"Why didn't she tell anybody?" Katie asked Danny, not seeming to realize that 'Princess' Sam was right there.

"She was afraid to. So everyday Sam just curled up in a little ball and cried waiting for a prince to come save her."

"Did he?"

"She got saved alright," Sam said grinning over her shoulder at Danny, who smiled back before going back to his story.

"But not by a prince. One day a big, ugly, mean dragon decided to sleep right next to Princess Sam at naptime. The dragon's name was Dash." Sam burst out laughing. "The dragon noticed how the little Princess was crying so he yelled to everyone that no one should be friends with the Princess cause she was a cry baby."

"Did they listen to the dragon?"

"Most of them did," Sam said softly. Danny reached forward and squeezed her hand. Elementary hadn't been fun for Sam.

"But two of them didn't. Two of the peasant boys decided they were going to talk to her. Danny wanted to talk to her cause she was so beautiful and the other, Tucker, because he smelled bad and couldn't get any friends."

The door swung open. "Who smelled bad," the newcomer asked.

"Tucker!" Sam called. He grinned and squeezed her shoulder as he walked past.

"So do you have to tell Sam stories to keep her entertained now? What a sad relationship you two must have." He shook his head.

"I'm telling it to Katie, you idiot." The darker boy seemed to notice the child for the first time.

"What's up Katie. Why are you hanging out with a loser like Danny? You can do better than him." She giggled.

"I'm telling a story here," Danny bit out indignantly.

"What one?"

"How the three of us met," Danny replied.

Sam grinned at him. "With a medieval theme."

"Well than by all means continue, Milady." Said Tucker obviously gesturing at Danny, not the girl in his lap or the child in his bed.

"It's on later," Danny said sarcastically.

"Looking forward to it," Tucker winked at him.

Sam looked back and forth. "I worry about you two, sometimes."

"What happened to the story," Katie whined, turning all the college seniors' attention back to the girl.

"Do you remember where we were."

Katie grinned "Tucker, the smelly commoner," she said with a yawn.

"Ah," said Tuck. "Isn't that where every good story starts?"

Danny ignored him, though it was hard, so much potential for a good comeback in that sentence. "So Tucker and Danny decided they were going to be nice to the beautiful Princess even though the Dragon told them not to. They sat next to her at snack time and played with her at free time and even got her the spot next to the window during naptime so it wasn't so dark."

"So they became friends forever and ever?" Katie asked hazel eyes drooping slightly.

The three exchanged a glance over her head. All three were smiling brightly. "You bet they did," Danny replied, tousling her hair gently.

"Did they live happily ever after," she trailed off towards the end of the question.

"Of course they did." Danny looked at his girlfriend and his best friend, the two who had always been there for him. He looked down at Katie, the 'accident' that had happened to Jazz and her boyfriend, Todd, at the end of freshman year. No, life wasn't perfect, and he would never tell her that it was. But maybe, it wasn't supposed to be.


	4. He's my Son

****

He's My Son

Summary: Danny's son is diagnosed with leukemia and Danny has to face the prospect of living without him.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I do not own 'He's My Son'. Mark Shultz does.

Author's Note: Could you guys really read the lyrics?

Dedication: I dedicate to everyone who has lost some one to cancer.

Danny leaned weakly against the door jam as he had every night since the news. He watched the little ten-year-olds chest rise up and down and his throat closed. Matt had been his life since he had found out he and Sam were going to have a baby. Now it was hard to imagine that anything would take him away from him. After fighting his whole life, he was finally helpless against something. This time he wasn't the victim though. And it was killing him.

He walked over to the side of his son's bed and stared down at the dark haired. He watched his eyelids flicker but they didn't open. He had his mother's eyes. The ones that were always so bright and full of a defiance he had got from Sam and a tendency to be foolishly optimistic that Danny had passed onto him. The little eyes that had held way too much of a haunted look these days.

No one should have to face this. Especially not a ten-year-old. Definitely not his ten-year-old. He was lost and confused and scared to show it. They all were. Tucker called everyday and asked how he was, but he wouldn't come visit. It hurt Tuck to see the little baldhead and small frame weakened from the chemotherapy. But for Danny there was no escape. And if it was horrific for him, he couldn't imagine what it was like for Matt.

**_I'm down on my knees again tonight  
_****_I'm hoping this prayer will turn out right  
See there is a boy that needs your help  
I've done all that I can do myself _**

Danny couldn't think of anything else to do. They had done chemotherapy, experimental medicine, changed Matt's diet. He wasn't going into remission. Danny went between constantly on the verge of tears to being furious at the world. How could other people steal, murder, beat people, and they walked the earth free and health while his son was dying?

Sam had been praying. Danny personally was furious with God. If he existed, how could he sit by and let this happen? He must be pretty sick and twisted. He puts loving families together just to rip them apart. If that was the kind of God that he had to turn to maybe he would rather face this alone. He didn't need that kind of help.

**_His mother is tired  
I'm sure you can understand  
Each night as he sleeps  
She goes in to hold his hand  
_****_And she tries not to cry  
As the tears fill her eyes _**

Sam wasn't eating or sleeping anymore. Matt had been hospitalized after he collapsed on Friday. Danny would just stand quietly watching his wife cling to their son's hand as if he was her only lifeline to sanity. And the more Danny tried to help, the more despondent she became. Danny's world was crumbling around him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Matt would just stare back at her with those eyes that were pure reflections of hers and whispered, "What would happen if I gave up?" Sam choked and stumbled and trembled over the words to make him cling to hope and Danny couldn't help but feel the tears well up in his glazed over eyes. He glanced out the window and saw a little streak of light. But instead of the wishes and hopes it had always stood for, this one seemed to mock his little family's lack of that.

**_Can you hear me?  
Am I getting through tonight?  
Can you see him?  
Can you make him feel all right?  
If you can hear me  
Let me take his place somehow  
See, he's not just anyone He's my son _**

Danny stared at the ceiling, laying in bed next to Sam but at the same time feeling so lost and alone. He stared at the ceiling, focusing on keeping a blank mind. Cause if he thought about anything he thought he would lose his mind. His life was being torn to shreds and he was just left sitting in the remnants of what he had once loved.

A muffled thud filtered through the closed door and Danny slipped out of bed without waking Sam and snuck into Matt's room. The bed was empty and the figure lay on the floor in a fetal position. There was the little boy clinging to the medicine bottle, eyes so blurred with tears that there was no way he could have seen. Danny fell to the floor and scooped the boy into his arms and rocked him back and forth as the sick child buried his face in his father's chest and cried himself out.

Danny finally stood, putting his son's head on his shoulder as he pulled back the tangled sheets. The soft broken voice whispered in his ear. "It hurts, dad. Make it go away," he pleaded. Danny couldn't hold back the tears as he held the little boy as tight as he could.

**_Sometimes late at night  
I watch him sleep  
I dream of the boy he'd like to be  
I try to be strong and see him through  
But God who he needs right now is You _**

He turned eleven today. He lived to see another birthday and he got everything a kid could wish for his parents, grandparents, Jazz, and Tuck spoiling him. He was gracious and smiled at everyone from below the bridge of his red baseball cap. But there was an underlying sense of wrongness. Everyone at the table knew unless there was a miracle, Matt would never see another birthday.

Sam and Jazz came out of the kitchen laughing, though every adult in the room could tell it was forced. Sam placed the white cake with extra frosting in front of the ten-year-old and Danny lit one candle and used it to light the rest. He poked the candle back into the marbleized cake. "Make a wish, Matt," Danny said as cheerfully as he could, choking on the words. He knelt next to his son.

The little head dipped down so that no one could see the tears. But Danny saw them, and he knew in an instant that he would never forget that haunted, tortured look. "Don't let me die," the ten-year-old breathed into the wind the words that would haunt Danny for the rest of his life.

**_Let him grow old  
Live life without this fear  
What would I be  
Living without him here  
He's so tired and he's scared  
Let him know that You're there _**

They had announced at the doctor visit that Matt wouldn't be hospitalized again no matter what. There was nothing else they could do. They had given them painkillers and told them to give him as many as he needed. There was no chance at recovery now. This was the point of no return.

Danny poked his head into Matt's room to see him standing next to the window with his forehead pressed against the cold glass, his breath making a small circle of frost. "It's time for bed." Danny said softly stepping inside. The boy nodded, his black hair falling in his face. He was struck by how much his son looked like him. He suddenly hated himself for saying that becoming a half ghost was the worst thing that could happen. This was a billion times worse.

"I'm dying, dad." His voice cracked, as if this was the first time that it had crossed his mind that maybe there was no future for him. The little boy lunged at Danny and held his father tight, sobbing so hard he couldn't breathe. Matt finally managed to calm down enough to get out. "Dad, I love you." Danny just held him tighter.

**_Can you hear me?  
Am I getting through tonight?  
Can you see him?  
Can you make him feel all right?  
If you can hear me  
Let me take his place somehow  
See, he's not just anyone He's my son _**

That was the last night father and son would ever spend together. Matt had died during the night, according to doctors around three in the morning. Danny looked around the room again, really looking for the first time in a long time. The one he and Sam had had a paint fight in while turning it into a nursery, where they had finally settled on a name, where he had rocked him to sleep, read him stories, and dried his tears.

Danny bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight against the onslaught of tears. He felt Sam's arms go around him and heard her soft sobs. He wrapped his arms around her feeling as if the world had ended and he was left standing with just a handful of the ashes and a heart full of the memories.

**_Can you hear me?  
Am I getting through tonight?  
Can you see him?  
Can you make him feel all right?  
If you can hear me  
Let me take his place somehow  
See he's not just anyone  
He's my son _**

He knelt down on the slightly overgrown grass. He would have been fourteen today. About ready to enter high school with a heart full of dreams. It was fourteen years ago today that Danny had sat in a tiny room holding his screaming wife's hand as tight as he could. Just hoping against hoping that both his wife and new infant son would come through this all right. That they had survived. It was the rest they'd had problems with.

Danny layed the rose on the ground and traced word after word on the tombstone with his callused finger. 'Matthew Daniel Fenton. Beloved Son, Grandson, and Nephew. To the boy who always believed in reaching for his dreams, We'll miss you, Matt.' Danny stared back at the sky, even trying to fight back the tears. He wasn't just another little boy. No, he would never be just another boy. Matt was his son.

**_Can you hear me?  
Can you see him?  
Please don't leave him  
He's my son _**


	5. HoppyDoHickey

****

Hoppy-do-hickey

Summary: Little bug hunting never hurt anyone. A young Danny One-shot.

Rating: G

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

Dedication: To everyone who has ever reviewed either _Hello _or _Imaginary_. You guys rule.

The five-year-old's sky-eyes honed in on his prey. He crawled closer, not even thinking about the clothes that he was supposed to be keeping clean. He slammed down his cupped hand and pulled them up close to his face. He grinned as he pulled his fingers apart to reveal nothing. His face screwed up and tears welled up in his eyes.

He took a deep gasp for air and was about to start into full fledged tears when he spotted the bug about three feet away. He threw his entire body at it. He opened his hands, hope written all over the tiny face to again have his dreams dashed.

The little girl shook her head. He was definitely strange. She walked over careful not to between him and the bug that was about two feet to his left. She bent down and cocked her head to one side. "Whatcha doin'?"

He looked up at her and then started searching again for the insect. "I'm trying to catch the hoppy-do-hickey, and you're gonna scare it away," he said very matter-of-factly.

The little girl stared down at the strange boy. "I am not!"

He glared up at her. "Are too."

"Am not," she shook her head baby pigtails flipping every which way.

"Are too," he stressed, nodding at her.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

The little girl got a demonic glint in her violet eyes. "Am too."

"Are not!" The girl doubled over laughing, pointing her small finger at the raven-haired boy. He seemed to stop and think about it for a moment. "You tricked me! That's not nice."

She stared at him as if no one had ever told her to be nice before. "You're weird. What's your name."

"Danny," he looked at her warily.

The girl grinned. She was missing a top tooth and two on the bottom. "I think I like you. My name's Sam. Wanna be friends?"

"Maybe." He looked down.

She squinted at him. "You got something better to do?" He shook his head. "Great! So now that were friends wanna go teeter totter?"

"Okay," he looked up at her. "But I was right," he said smugly as he put his hands in the dirt and pushed himself into a standing position.

Sam cocked her head in confusion. "About what?"

Danny walked right up to her so there noses and foreheads where touching and they both stared into each other's eyes, unblinkingly. "You," Danny stated, with a huge Cheshire grin. "You made me lose my hoppy-do-hickey."


	6. I Still Believe

****

I Still Believe

Summary: Sam has had one bad relationship to many making her question if there is even a point to anything and Danny is left trying to give her a reason for living.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman dies.

Dedication: This one's going out by request to Rainbow Serenity, who wants to see a fluffy angst. Oh the Paradoxialness of it all! This was the first one that made me really stop and have to think to hard. Hope it turned out okay…

Danny stared harder at the Basic Grammar book, forcing himself to focus on the proper usage of commas despite the late hour. College was turning out to be a repeat of High School, lots of studying to pull of mediocre grades. He dropped his head back onto the pillow and sighed. Maybe he just wasn't cut out for this.

There was a soft knock at his door. He almost jumped. A glance at the clock told him it was way too late for any sort of visit. He paded to the door and peaked out. Sam was leaning heavily against the wall across from his door. Her face read and swollen, her eyes puffy and tear tracks still glistening on her face. "Sam?"

Her head jerked up as if the fact that he answered his door was a complete surprise. "Danny," she sort of choked out. "I thought you were asleep." She glanced down. She pulled at the flannel pajama pants she had on.

He opened the door and she slipped in. "Trying to cram for my midterm tomorrow. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said just standing there sort of awkwardly in the middle of his dorm room.

Danny shot her an incredulous look. "Of course. That's why your crying in your PJ's in front of my door at four thirty in the morning." Sam looked down again taking a raspy breath as more tears welled up in her eyes. Danny fell back on his bed and patted a spot next to him. She sat down and he slipped an arm around her shoulders. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

She sat there for a moment just sort of quivering. Something Danny had never associated with Sam before. "Danny, am I useless?"

He brushed her hair back behind her ear. "Of course, your not," he consoled gently. "What brought this on?"

Sam looked up at him a sort of fear in her eyes. "It's a long story and you have a midterm to study for," she trailed off as Danny shook his head.

"This is more important." She gave him a kind of grateful smile, but the tears that still clung to her lashes reminded him it was forced. "So we want to start with the cause?"

"Michael." He sighed. Somehow he wasn't sure he wanted to have this conversation now. He had been watching Sam go through one horrible relationship after another. It broke his heart every time it happened. Michael was the current 'friend-that-might-be-more'.

"What happened?" he asked gently.

She twirled the drawstring of her hoodie around her index finger, staring at it in fascination. "He got mad because he kissed me and I didn't feel anything."

He didn't know for sure how to respond. "You just haven't found the right guy yet, Sam." It killed him to say that. It physically hurt and he suddenly felt like he was going to cry too. Ever since his junior year in high school, he had decided Sam was the only girl for him but unfortunately Sam hadn't felt the same. Try as he might he wasn't able to make himself move on.

Sam shook her head. "I don't feel anything, Danny. I never feel anything." She wiped the tears of on the sleeve of the black sweatshirt.

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. "I never feel anything. I mean nothing no love, no lust, no nothing. Maybe I am just incapable of feelings."

He shook his head and squeezed her shoulders. "I know that's not true."

"What if it is? What if I am just a freak like Michael says?" she bit out harshly.

Danny forced Sam to face him. "Michael is a creep, Sam. Don't listen to a word he says."

"Every guy I get is sleaze, Danny. Why does nobody notice me for me?"

It took everything in him for Danny not to say 'I notice'. "Guys notice you, Sam. It's impossible not to notice you."

Sam shook her head almost imperceptibly. But that wasn't what Danny was concentrating on. Sam's eyes had a vacant hollow look that scared him deeply. In all the times he had known Sam she'd never looked this haunted before. "I'm tired of not feeling anything. I'm tired of going through life just getting by. If this is what life is like I don't want to do this anymore."

"You have to still believe in love," Danny whispered.

"Even when I don't see any point." Sam said bitterly.

Danny smiled slightly at the disbelieving young women. "That's what believing is, Sam. Having faith in what you can't see."

"I'm tired in having faith. I'm tired of people letting me down. I'm tired of being used. If that is what you believe in, Danny, you're stupider than I thought."

"Don't say that," Danny stated firmly. He wasn't upset just concerned. He sat there watching as Sam retreated further into herself. "Sam?" No response. "Sam!" In a moment of desperation, he did something that he wouldn't have done if he had stopped to think about it. Danny leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly against Sam's.

Sam seemed to wake up and kissed him back with as much feeling as she could put into it. When Danny pulled back Sam almost whimpered. "Don't try to tell me you didn't feel that?" Sam nodded, leaning back in but Danny pulled back. "Say it. Please, Sam, I need to hear you say this."

Violet eyes met blue. There were so many emotions in Sam's gaze Danny couldn't begin to figure them all out. "I felt it," she breathed, but he caught it none the less.

Danny smiled at the soft admission. Danny leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes, hardly daring to believe that this was happening. "You still not believe?"

Sam smiled at him, the first smile of the late-night visit. "I will if you do." And with that she leaned forward and cut of his reply with a kiss.


	7. Perfect

****

Perfect

Summary: Sam and Danny go from a couple to a family. A Danny Sam Vignette.

Rating: G

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

The sound of thunder echoed again through the room that, only hours before, had been filled with painful screams. The little puffy pink eyes seemed to close tighter if that was possible. The purple tint that came with ever newborn clung to the tiny person. But to Sam Fenton, she had never seen anything more beautiful.

She cradled the tiny neck carefully, almost not daring to breathe. Despite how tired she was, her smile was the brightest it had probably ever been. She pressed her index finger against the tiny palm and little fingers curled instinctively around it. Sam smiled down at the tiny newborn. The baby made a little sob like gasp. "It's alright," Sam cooed at the infant. "Everything couldn't be better."

The baby squinted still puffy eyes at her. They were the baby blue that infants were known for but Sam had a feeling that they would always be that color. And the little sheen of hair was almost the same shade as Danny's. Sam smiled, tears clinging to the edge of her eyes. "Well there's no doubt about who your daddy is. And your going to be his little angel. You'll have to help me keep him out of trouble. It's pretty hard, but we can do it, right?"

The little baby's breathing seemed to even out as it drifted to sleep. "Your daddy is a great guy," Sam continued soothingly. "He's kind of…awkward sometimes. Like you and I had to take a cab here because your daddy dropped the keys to the car down the drain in the gutter. So he's having to call your grandma and see if she can loan him the car."

It felt somehow strange to call Danny's mom 'Grandma'. Which puzzled Sam because she'd been a grandparent for three years now. Something she and Jack were just absolutely ecstatic about. Who wouldn't be? David and Lily were adorable and the greatest niece and nephew any one could ask for.

"You're going to have one strange family," she shifted her grip, always conscious of the weak little neck. "Yeah, I know. I married him. It's my fault." She stared down at the little face. She felt rather than saw Danny slip into the room and come up next to her.

"How're my two favorite girls?" Sam grinned over at him, and watched his eyes light up as he looked at the little sleeping child.

"Perfect," she breathed, slipping the little infant into Danny's arms. "Absolutely perfect."


	8. Savior

****

Savior

Summary: Danny and Jazz are being abused by a babysitter till one night they've had all they can take. Inspired by the music video '_Savior_' by Skillet. One-shot.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

Dedication: To RainbowSerenity for doing the covers for Hello and Imaginary. You rock my world!

Maddie Fenton lifted the surprisingly quiet little boy out of the bathtub. "Is something wrong?" The little boy looked up with scared blue eyes. "Are you scared about your dad and I leaving tonight?" He nodded, unruly bangs falling in his eyes. "Don't worry, Josh is nice. He's watched you before." Danny stared off into space as his mother finished drying the five-year-old off.

She finished helping him slip on the little light blue pajamas and lifted him up, carrying him downstairs and putting him next to Jazz on the couch. "There. See. Your sister isn't scared about tonight, are you Jazz?" She shook her head not looking away from the TV. But the second the doorbell rang and her mother turned her back, she looked over at her brother with terrified eyes. Danny swallowed. It was all over now.

**_I'm everything you've wanted  
I am the one whose haunting you  
I am the eyes inside of you, stare back at you _**

The two sat in Danny's room, playing in the blanket tent they had made earlier. Their mother had even helped them string up some Christmas lights on the inside for light. Jazz almost wished she hadn't the let an eerie sort of glow over her brothers terrified features. She swallowed the lump in her throat, focusing on staying quiet and keeping Danny occupied.

Other than locking them in Danny's room he hadn't touched them yet. Jazz listened to the strange noises coming from the living room as the twenty-two year old was watching some sort of movie. He had just thrown her and Danny in here saying that it was a grown-up thing. Jazz bounced the rubber ball to Danny again.

He missed the catch and crawled out after the ball. She waited for a moment. "Danny," she whispered. No response. "Danny?" She heard the door creak open. Blue-green eyes went wide. "Danny! No!" she hissed. It was too late. He was long gone.

**_There's nothing left to lose  
There's nothing left to prove  
Surrender your love, it's all you can do _**

Jazz bolted as quietly as she could to the top of the steps. She saw Danny running down at the bottom. "Danny!" she called as quietly as she could. He looked up at her and pointed towards the spill-proof cup sitting on the coffee table before darting off into the living room.

Terror filled Jazz as she took the steps two at a time trying to get there in time to stop her brother. Danny grabbed the sippy cup and ran into the kitchen bumping the sleeping college senior's elbow in the process.

His eyes snapped open and he turned just in time to see the second grader skid to a stop at the edge of the living room. His face contorted as he saw her. "You little— I thought I told you to stay in that damn room!" Jazz froze, eyes wide as he walked over and grabbed her by the shirt shaking her hard. She started to scream and he slapped her hard upside the head before grabbing her by the shirt and dragging her up the stairs.

Danny made it to the top of the stairs just in time to see the door slam on his sister's room and her crying and fabric tearing. Danny walked over and stood there, tears welling up in his eyes. "Jazz?" he whispered.

The terrified screams continued for what seemed like an eternity. Danny fell to the ground crying, he pressed his hands to his ears as tight as he could. "Go away," he whispered to himself. "Just go away."

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
But I know, yeah I know _**

Danny stayed like that until finally the door came open. Josh stepped out and smirked at the little boys tears. "You want something to cry about?" he spat. He grabbed a handfull of dark hair and pulled the little boy into a standing position before throwing him hard into the wall.

He took the belt in his hand and snapped it across the back of the little boy. He screamed for his sister. "She can't help you now. In fact, I'd be surprised if she could even walk." The young man sneered. The little boy shook his head. "Are you calling me a lair?" Blue eye look petrified and he picked him up by the throat and tossed him next onto his sister's floor.

The door slammed behind them. Jazz managed to shove herself off the bed and her and Danny crawled to each other. Shaking hands clung to each other as they cried on the others shoulder. "We're leaving, Danny," she whispered. Blue eyes flicked up at her. "We have to run away. He'll kill us." The kindergartner just sat there numbly his cheek resting against his sisters shoulder. He finally nodded.

"I don't wanna die, Jazz," he murmured and she held him tighter.

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
Your savior _**

The little book bags were both dumped and now filled with clothes and toys. Jazz and Danny clutched ands as they walked slowly down the stairs, Jazz whimpering softly at every step. Every time she did Danny would squeeze her hand. The two made it to the ground floor and stayed pressed against the wall as they crept down to the lab.

Jazz cleared of a corner of the worktable and bit her lip against the pain as she swung herself up and shoved her pink book bag out the window. It stuck but after a little bit of pushing it went. She then swung herself up and used her arms to pull herself through. She turned and stuck her head and arms back in.

Danny was next. He pulled himself up onto the table after much struggling and reached up to where his sister was waiting to pull him up. Danny jumped for Jazz's hands and his little bear foot caught the edge of the beaker tray witch fell to the floor with a crash that seemed impossibly loud. Upstairs, the TV went off.

Jazz panicked and tried to pull her little brother out, backpack and all. "I'm stuck," Danny almost screamed.

"I know," Jazz retorted, anchoring her heels into the dirt and throwing her weight against it.

Danny started crying little tears streaming down his face. "Don't leave, Jazz! Don't leave."

"I'm…not…going…to…" Jazz bit out, pulling with each word, each time he came a little bit closer to being out.

Jazz heard Josh bit out a bad word that she had heard on the bus. With one last pull Danny came loose. She drug him a good three feet away from the window before pulling him to his feet. Jazz picked up the spotlight she was carrying and tossed Danny a littler flashlight. Grabbing Danny's free hand, she ran for all she was worth.

**_It's time to redefine your deophobic mind  
Don't hesitate, there's no escape  
The secrets on the inside _**

Danny whimpered again as his sister pulled hard on his hand. "I'm tired, Jazz," he pleaded. Jazz slowed to a walk, glancing over her shoulder but she didn't stop. She squeezed his hand and smiled at him. Her legs were so sore; it hurt so much to walk. But she would die before she would let him touch her baby brother.

She looked down at the blue-eyed little boy. He had his head bent, and his shoulders tense. He looked like that cat that used to be in their neighborhood. She had tried to pet it one day and it ran away. She had started crying and her mom had told her it wasn't her fault. Somebody had been mean and hurt the cat so now it was afraid of people. She wondered if the same thing could happen to people. She didn't want that to happen to her and Danny.

She remembered promised when he started school that she wouldn't let anyone push him around or hurt him. That included Josh. She had broken her promise. She wondered if her parents would be mad at her. She didn't want them to be mad, she had tried so hard. She started to cry. Maybe she just wasn't good enough.

**_There's nothing left to lose  
There's nothing left to prove  
Surrender your love, it's all you can do _**

The two swinging little beams of light finally entered the playground at their school, followed shortly by two exhausted children. Danny was basically leaning against his sister's side as they walked. It was way past there bedtime and they had gone through a lot. His eyes drooped shut and his footsteps slowed. He felt someone jerk his hand and he opened his eyes again and took a few more steps.

His sister sort of pulled them over to the yellow plastic tunnel that lead up to the blue twisty slide. She helped him to get inside. They crawled into the middle, Danny leading the way. Halfway through, they both sat down. They sat in silence, too exhausted to think anymore. It wasn't long before both children were out cold. Fingers frozen by the late autumn air clutched at the other's hand.

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
But I know, yeah I know _**

The front door swung open, Maddie stepped through the door. "Josh, were home!" Silence greeted them and both parents exchanged an uneasy look. The kids would be in bed, they knew that but they almost always came home to Josh watching a movie. "I'll go check on the kids. You find Josh."

"Josh?" Jack called. He heard his wife peak in on their son's room. He went into the kitchen, still no sign of the college student. Where in the world could he be? A piercing scream filled the house he dashed out of the room in time to see Maddie get to the top of the stairs. Nothing in his life had scared him like her next words. "They're both gone."

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
Your savior _**

Little blue eyes snapped open at the sound of something moving. He reached over and shook his sister awake. She blinked a few times before realizing why he'd woke her up. She nodded and held her finger to her lips. He nodded and repeated the gesture before both tried to listen. They couldn't understand words but there were definitely two people talking.

"I think it's an abduction. We're wasting our time looking. We'll never find those poor kids." The sound of footsteps coming up the steps to there tunnel sounded deafeningly loud. "Can you imagine what it'll be like for their teachers? Having to tell kindergarten and second-graders their classmates were kidnapped?"

"Don't say that." Came the other's voice. "My son's in that little boy's class."

The footsteps stopped. "You're kidding. That's Tuck's class?

The other voice came from a little further away than the last time. "They said they both go here. Little boy's five and there's only one kindergarten class." Danny turned to look at his sister. She gave his hand a squeeze. Danny knew Tucker. He sometimes played blocks with him.

Suddenly a flash light shone up the tunnel and both pressed themselves higher up. The light swept through again, this time going dangerously close to Jazz's left shoe. Danny tried to scoot up higher so Jazz could hide, the only problem was his shoe squeeked against the slick plastic. "What was that?" the voice called. Both kids gasped when the light hit them in the face.

**_I am the eyes inside staring back at you  
I am the eyes inside staring back at you  
You need  
You need me _**

The two terrified kids sat in the backseat of the police car while the officers radioed that they had found them. Jazz tuned the words out and stared at the park. She couldn't believe just today that she had been playing on the swings and laughing. She felt like she'd never even smile again.

She was scared and she couldn't show it. She'd already let Danny get hurt, she wouldn't let him get scared. She looked over at her brother a thick welt from the belt appearing on the side of his neck. She couldn't help but cry.

One of the officers opened the door. "Can I sit back here?" Jazz and Danny both scooted over. He sat next to Danny. He looked over at them. He seemed nice. His eyes weren't mean like all the policeman on TV who arrested the bad guy and then took him to jail. "I know you guys are scared. I know you probably don't want to think about it, but I need you to tell me why you ran away."

They sat in silence for what could have been minutes or it could have been a few seconds. "He hurt us," Jazz whispered.

The officer reached over and squeezed her knee. "Was it your dad?"

Jazz shook her head. "Josh. He's our babysitter."

**_What you got, what you need  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
What you got, what you need  
Everything's gonna crash and break _**

Jack finally opened the door. It took longer than usual doing to his unwillingness to put his frightened son down. Maddie followed with Jazz clinging to her. There had been a lot of tears and hugs and muttered assurances. It was the longest night of the two childrens life. The clock hands in the living room pointed dutifully at the twelve and the six. It was slightly past midnight.

Tomorrow would be even longer. Medical exams for both kids and a long talk with the police was looming over the two young children's heads. "Daddy? Do we have to go to school tomorrow." Jack looked down at the little blue eyes staring back up at him.

"No, Danny. I think you can stay home tomorrow."

"Will my teacher get mad?" he asked sleepily.

Jack shook his head. "Your teacher just wants you to get better."

His little face turned to look in the kitchen where his mother was washing the nail-rakings on his sister's face. "I want us to get better too."

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
But I know, yeah I know _**

Jack and Maddie sat at the kitchen table. "So the real question," Jack murmered. "Is do we let the kids know that the reason they're being video taped tomorrow is so that we can persecute Josh."

Maddie tore the edges of her paper napkin. She looked up tears forming in the edges of her green eyes. "I just want this to be over, Jack. I want to hear them laughing, yelling, or fighting again. It scares me how they've both gotten so quiet."

Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe the police had the right idea. If not for both than just for Jazzmine. She doesn't even understand what happened to her or why."

"I don't understand why it happened. I mean why Jazz? She's only seven."

Jack shook his head, feeling helpless. "I don't think we'll ever know."

**_What you got, what you want, what you need  
Gonna be your savior  
Everything's gonna crash and break  
_****_Your savior _**

Jazz propped herself up and glanced at the clock. Two fifty-seven. She almost cried. How could it only be two minutes since the last time she checked? She sat up and pulled her knees up close to her. It had been two weeks and she still felt incredibly dirty. She didn't think she'd ever feel clean again. The doctor she was going to told her it's not her fault, but if that was true why did she feel so bad?

It was so hard to sit in class with all the others. She felt so different. The tears that had only been a thought away for fourteen hard days came again. She took a shaky breath, and heard her door creak open. She looked up to see her little brothers tousled head peek through the door.

"Jazz?" came the loud whisper.

She took a deep breath. "Yeah?"

He stepped in so she could see he was clutching the blanket he'd had since he was born. "I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you?" She nodded and folded back the covers. Danny darted over and curled up next to her. The two of them laid awake for a while both just staring at the ceiling. "Jazz?"

"What?"

He turned towards her. Bright blue eyes met sparkling blue-green. "We'll be okay, right?"

For the first time in two weeks, the auburn-haired girl didn't feel as bad. "Yeah. I think so."

**_I'm watching you  
Cause you need me  
I'm watching you_**


	9. Three Times Is A Promise

****

Three Times Is A Promise.

Summary: A couple Danny x Sam fluff scenes rolled into one one-shot.

Rating: G

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I do own Jeremy, Lexi, and Tracey.

Dedication: This one's going out by request to I LUV FLUFF, who asked in a review to see a fluff piece that ended twenty years in the future from Sam's Pov.

The eighteen-year-old stared straight up into the sky despite the tiny flecks of snow that drifted listlessly downwards. Violet eyes wide, she laughed and spun around a few times just for fun. The strapless blue gown swirling with her. "There you are," came the voice from behind her. She spun on her heel still laughing.

"Danny!" He leaned against the back door from the gym, the loud music from the DJ still blaring. She stared at him for a moment before spinning a few more times.

Her boyfriend laughed at her. "Your going to get sick, and your parents won't let me take you to prom."

Sam stopped and looked over at him, she shrugged her bare shoulders. "It's just Sweethearts Swirl and it's so pretty out here. And I don't care what my parents say, I'm going with you no matter what."

He shook his head and she watched his dark bangs brush his forehead. He shoved himself off the wall and dropped the jacket from the suit over her small shoulders. Sam grinned up at him. "There," he said, slipping his arms around her waist. She threw her head back and stared at the flurry of snowflakes again.

Sam didn't look at him. "When I was really little, I used to wish I could live in a snow globe so I could just watch the snow come down all the time."

She felt Danny's hand brush her check but she still didn't look down. "I love you, Sam."

She looked down and almost lost herself in his ice blue eyes. "I love you too."

They stared at each other for a moment till she tore her eyes away. Sam blew a thin stream of air out and watched with a childlike excitement as the cloud of vapor appeared. She laughed and beamed up at Danny. He shook his head. "You've changed a lot through high school, you know that?"

She laughed. "You have too." She bent down in the snow and sprinkled some of the loose pieces on top over the navy material of her dress. "We're growing up, Danny. Whether we want to or not." Sam sighed, her breath visible. "Remember last year when we rolled your car?"

Danny snorted. "How could I forget? It's a miracle we all go out alive," he said softly.

Sam stood up and turned to face him most of the snowflakes falling off her dress. "Exactly! Life's to short for any of us to go around being critical of every aspect of life. And that's what I'd been doing. I can't believe how horrible I was."

Danny sighed. "You weren't horrible."

"Maybe not, but I wasn't far from it." Danny opened his mouth, but she cut him off. "I know you don't think so, but I wasn't the greatest person. I'm still not perfect but I _am_ trying."

He grinned. "Love you, Sam."

She smiled over at him. "I love you, Danny." A slow song came on and filtered through the closed doors into the courtyard, where the couple stood. "Oh, I like this song!" Sam glanced over at him expectantly.

He grinned at her, "I guess that's my not-so-subtle cue to take you back in?"

Sam looked at the door for a moment, the loud crowds and screaming just to hear each other. "Can we just stay out here? We can hear the music okay."

Danny stared at her for a moment and she felt slightly self-conscious. He just held his arms out slightly and she slipped right into them. They stood there quietly for a while just swaying to the music, standing in the snow. She felt him brush the some snowflakes out of her hair.

"I've always wanted a winter wedding. At first I just wanted it because everyone else wants a June wedding, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's the right thing for me." She paused for a moment and Danny pulled her closer, giving her the courage to go on. "It's just everyone seems so much happier in winter. Between Christmas and New Years and Valentines, there just seems to be this whole good feeling in the world. Like maybe were not living in a fallen world after all," Sam sighed just leaning against Danny's chest. "It's probably just me."

"Nope. Your right, everything just seems better around the holidays. I think it'd be perfect for you. I love the idea," Danny said softly. "And I love--"

Sam pulled back slightly and put a finger over his lips. He gave her a quizzical look. "That'll be your third time. You have to be careful, say things like that three times means it's a promise forever."

Danny reached up and took her hand in his and kissed her fingertip. "I love you," he whispered. "Now your stuck with me."

Sam felt tears well up in her eyes. "No one but you," she breathed.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The twenty-year-old sighed as she walked towards the food court with two girls in her dorm. College was fun but she really missed it being just her and the guys. Since Tucker had gone to a different college, just being the three of them hanging out was becoming fewer and far between. They still talked almost all the time over emails but it wasn't the same.

The girls slid into a table near the edge of the court. "Sam!" someone called out. She didn't even bother turning around. It was a common name it happened a lot.

"Hey," whispered Lexi. "It's Danny and Jeremy." That got her attention. She whirled in her seat and spotted the guys waving them over. "Come on," Lexi proded.

Sam picked up her shopping bag and walked over to the guys table. Danny pulled over a chair from the next table over and put it as close to his as he could. "Hey," she said dropping into it.

Danny just smiled as he slipped his arm around her shoulders. She smiled back at him. "You two are the cutest couple I have seen in my life," cooed Tracey.

Jeremy just grinned at them all and winked over at Danny. Sam rolled her eyes at the 'guy gesture'. "Look what I got," said Jeremy in a five-year-old secretive manner. He reached into an Osco sack at his side and dropped a bag of valentines candy on the table. "It was on clearance since it was a week ago."

"Conversation hearts?" Sam laughed. "I used to be addicted to these things."

Jeremy glanced at Danny, who was opening the bag. "So I've heard."

Danny got the bag open and tipped a generous portion of them onto the table and began flipping them over. Sam leaned forward putting her arm on the table so she could see better. Tracey, Sam's roommate, grabbed a handful and started reading sayings. "'Call me', 'Be Mine', 'Email me'…'So fine'?! Who writes 'So fine' on a candy heart?"

Jeremy laughed. "You think that's bad? I just found one that says, 'You wish'," he handed over to Lexi, Tracey reading it over her shoulder. Sam felt something hit her in the arm she looked down to see Danny dropping a little yellow heart next to her arm.

"No kidding!" Tracey grinned. "I want a 'fax me' one. Sam, help me look." Sam proceeded to shift through candy hearts when she felt something hit her arm again. This time Danny had pushed over a purple heart. She looked down to see both little candies were imprinted with the words 'Marry me'.

Sam glanced quickly over at Danny. He was digging through the pile of candy sayings with a blank look on his face. His bangs fell in his eyes, but even still she could tell they were a darker blue than usual, something that happened when he was nervous. At that moment Tracey elbowed Sam. "Keep looking!"

Sam went back to digging when Danny grabbed her hand he turned it palm up and placed three candies in her hand, curling her fingers around them. Sam pulled her hand back and peeked down at them. The last heart was white. But the important thing is that staring back up at her in dark pink lettering was 'Marry Me'.

Sam stared at the candy for a moment, not sure what to think or feel. Danny whispered in her ear. "There. That's three times, now it's a promise."

Sam went stiff and stared down into her hand at the three tiny heart-shaped sugar candies. She looked at Danny who looked more nervous than she had ever seen him. Sam looked down at her hand again and dropped the three candies onto the table. Her fingers shaking she reached out and started flipping candy again. She found what she was looking for.

She heard a chair move and turned to see Danny getting up. Total heartbreak was written all over his features. No one seemed to notice but Sam. She felt her heart shatter at the look on his face. She grabbed his hand and pressed the little candy heart into his hand and curled his fist around it. She gently pulled him back down.

Danny stared at her for a moment before daring to uncurl his hand. His fingers were shaking badly but Sam knew hers were too. Danny stared blankly at the candy for what seemed to be an eternity as the message seemed to sink in. He slowly raised his eyes and met Sam's. She gave him the most reassuring smile she could muster, which was shaky at best.

Danny's slowly smiled back at her what sounded like a strangled sob escaping his lips as he reached out and pulled her to him. Dropping the candy heart back onto the table, right next to Sam's and on a green heart in orange writing was the simple two words, 'I do'.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sam held the brushed the tiny head as she stared into the little crib. She had never thought she'd see this day. Her and Danny had a daughter. A little tiny baby that was half her and half Danny. It was so amazing. She had wait way too long for this day.

Danny and her had discussed children more times than she cared to remember. Danny was always afraid that because he didn't have typical DNA the child could turn out to be a half ghost, or worse something that couldn't even be called human. He was always so worried about it. But accidents happen and life's full of surprises.

That was the best way to describe Kayley, a surprise. Sam had thought she had gone crazy when the doctor told her she was pregnant. "But we took precautions," Sam argued.

The doctor had just shook his head and in a moment of expert medical prognosis said, "Stuff happens." Sam shook her head. Danny didn't know what to think when he found out. It had taken till the first ultrasound for him to even admit that maybe it would be alright. She saw the headlights through the window. She smiled down at the tiny infant. "Daddy's home," she cooed scooping the 3-week-old up.

Kayley whimpered at being picked up but put her head down on her mother's shoulder and let her eyes close. Sam kissed the tiny fragile neck and padded down the stairs slowly. The front door swung open and Danny stepped in and grinned at her. "There's my beautiful angel."

Sam smiled as she reached the bottom. "Is that meant for me or the baby?"

Danny grinned as he bolted the door behind him. "One of you."

He gave Sam a quick kiss and she slipped the baby into his arms. He just stared down at her and Sam walked over and put her head on his shoulder. "She's so tiny," he breathed. "I don't think I was ever this tiny."

Sam shook her head. "According to Maddie, you were smaller."

He stared down in disbelief. "Just think she's going to grow up, fall in love, and she's going to have a baby."

"Just like we did."

He grinned over at her, kissing her forehead lightly. "No, I fell in love in kindergarten then I grew up."

Sam laughed slightly. "If we would have told you that when we were fourteen, you would have died rather than believe it."

"You'll have to give me a break I was dealing with a lot that year."

Sam laughed. "Don't worry, I was there."

"Thank God you were. I don't know where I'd be without you, Sam." He looked over at her. His blue eyes a little too intense. "I'd be totally lost with out you."

"If you keep telling that to me and I might start to believe it." She grinned.

"Three times is a promise," he whispered.

Sam looked down at their daughter. Her eyes were drawn up to Danny's bright blue ones, the same blue that his daughter shared. She grinned. "Of course it is."


	10. When In Doubt

****

When In Doubt

Summary: Danny laments over life with a razor blade in his hand. DxS One Shot. Songfic for When in Doubt by Thousand Foot Krutch.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I do not own 'When in Doubt'. Thousand Foot Krutch does.

Author's Note: Could you guys really read the lyrics?

Dedication: This one's going out by request to The Good Girl, who asked for a sad DxS that wasn't too dramatic. If it's too dramatic let me know. Yay, this one's angst, right up my alley. In my mind the best thing I've written yet.

The fourteen-year-old sat on his bed twirling the little trapezoidal razor blade back and forth. He couldn't believe he'd been this stupid. Did normal people have this much trouble falling in love or was it just him? It probably was. God he had to be abnormal in every sense of the word. Today he had did something he had been dying to do for a long time.

He had a heart to heart with Sam. It had been a long time coming and he had totally messed it up. He had spilled out his heart and she had got scared and in a total moment of blind confusion had ran away. He couldn't blame her if he had been in her shoes he would have done the same thing. The key to being a couple is being friends first. But once you become friends it gets even harder to tell them what you're felling. After all, best friends don't fall in love.

And she'd never figured it out? He found that hard to believe. He wasn't that good at hiding things and Sam was never that dense. Tuck, maybe. Him, definitely. Sam, never. He sighed and stared at the ceiling watching the shadows shift as the sun sank further into the west. It was unbelievable. The things he was sure she knew, she had no clue about.

Danny watched twirling the razor bale from his index down to his ring finger. The three fingers covered with little nicks and blood leaked silently from them. That was alright it didn't hurt, at least the fact that he was bleeding meant he was alive. But at the moment he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. All he knew was he needed a way out.

_We sat upon your bed,  
__You said the things you said  
And I could not believe that you seem so naive  
We exchanged our poetry,  
You seem to think a lot like me  
I'll guess I'll just assume that we could talk about most anything _

And he had found it. Here was his way out. He stared at the tiny, cold, unforgiving piece of metal. It didn't' bother him. Danny was getting used to being unforgiven. It was becoming a daily occurrence in his life. There were consequences that had to be lived with. And he wasn't sure that these were ones he could live with. He had just killed the best friendship a person could have. It was solely and completely his fault.

Danny drew it across his wrist in a strange diagonal. He sat there, detached, as he watch the thin white line turn a deep red and widen. He drew it across in a perpendicular line watching it make sort of a grotesque bloody cross. The line became thicker and longer as the blood bubbles lost the fight against gravity and the sticky substance trickled slowly towards his elbow.

Part of him whispered at him, that this wasn't death. This was just a wake up call. He knew it wasn't that deep but it was there. And somehow he knew it would always be there. This was a scar that he was going to have to bear for a long time. Stuff like this didn't go away, and there are some wounds that time can never heal.

_Then I asked have you ever felt abandoned?  
Felt so lost that you were stranded,  
Just like all the walls are closing in  
And you were left inside  
Have you ever felt like your days were numbered?  
Stuck under a tree in thunder  
Seems to be no way out!  
But there is one when in doubt _

Danny woke up he still felt shaky, the loss of blood screaming to him. He rolled over onto his side. And tried to take deep breathes. His eyes burned from a sort of exhaustion that refused to go away. He looked down at the scabs on his arm, the dried blood all over him. It seemed so appropriate somehow. He was tainted forever.

It fit though. In a strange twisted way it made sense. He was stupid enough to not think about this happening. Whenever he had imagined telling Sam what he felt she had just sort of cried and fell into his arms and they'd lived happily ever after. He really needed to get over himself.

I mean what did he have to offer her anyway. He was a freak. He wasn't smart, or cute, or funny. He just was there. And somehow he had thought that would be enough. How could he be this pathetic? It was only a matter of time before he gave in. He knew that. He was living on borrowed time.

_Ready for another day  
Slowly watch ya waste away,  
Havin' fun, bein' cool  
__Like we did in high school,  
Elementary romance feelin' nervous at the dance,  
Crack a smile, hold it down,  
Whatever the circumstance,  
Sex, Drugs, Hadda be cool,  
All the things we learned in school,  
Typical teenage machines,  
Anyone tell me what this means?  
I could learn, I could try,  
Never really had an alibi  
Wish I did, that's no lie  
Everybody's asking _

Danny kicked closed his bedroom door. Life was tiring sometimes. At school today, Sam had on a perfect little mask. All smiling and happy, like nothing had happened. But it had. Even if he was the only person that realized it. If she wanted to lie to herself, that was fine. He wasn't going to stop her. But he refused to lie to himself.

He had given Sam his heart and she had thrown it on the ground and walked away. She had never ever hurt him before. All he kept thinking was 'Why.' Why did He mean nothing to her when she meant the world to him? Why did it half to turn out this way? Why did he even care anymore? Why bother? Why Try? Why Care? Why not?

_Why?  
When you feel like you can't fly  
You gotta know I got the answer for ya baby,  
Drives ya crazy, it's not over  
There's so much more to life then this  
Why?  
When you feel like you can't cry  
You gotta know I got the answer for ya baby,  
Drives ya crazy it's not over  
There's so much more to life then this _

Dear Sam,

I'm sorry I never meant anything to you. I guess that was entirely my fault for convincing myself I did. I remember ever since we were little, we always swore we could tell each other anything. I guess that was a lie too. I live in a world of lies. It's my safety net. Except now it's gone.

You shattered it. But it's still not your fault it's mine. I wish you could no how hard this is for me. It really shouldn't be. I mean after this I'll be gone so what does it matter what you think of me. I've cried over this. Yeah, I guess that I am a loser after all. But you know what, Sam? I'm at the point where I can't cry any more.

I've lived in my head so long I'm not sure where that blurred line between reality and fantasy is anymore. But it doesn't matter. As long as you know, you're the one who has to live with it. I hope you do a much better job of living with it than I did.

Forever,

Danny Fenton.

_Things seem so hallucinary,  
In the corners of my mind they scare me,  
I know ya never meant to desert me,  
Just like ya never really meant to hurt me _

Danny had never really been good at doing things with his left hand, so he had to admit that cut was a lot more shaky than the vein he had cut with his right. But it was mostly along the vein anyway. It would work. He wondered it he should slit next to his throat too. That would be harder for them to cover up for the funeral. He didn't need to cause anymore work for anyone than he was worth.

It was really kind of strange to think so surreally about death. But of course there is a difference between death and dying. People were only dying if they were attached to life. Something that he found he no longer was. What was the point of being attached to something that held nothing for you? As everything started to go fuzzy, he wondered how many other people had figured that out.

_Then I ask have you ever felt abandoned?  
Felt so lost that you were stranded,  
Just like all the walls are closing in  
And you were left inside  
Have you ever felt like your days were numbered?  
Stuck under a tree in thunder  
Seems to be no way out  
But there is one when in doubt _

Sam clutched the letter; she had read it so many times she should have it memorized by now. But she didn't want too. She wanted to remember none of it. For it to be some huge lie that someone would apologize for. And the strange thing was that she _did _love him. If he had given her another couple days she would have been able to tell him. And he would be here with her instead of lying on some mortician's worktable. It wasn't fair. It was all her fault. She had been selfish. She thought _she _couldn't handle it yet. _She _needed more time. And Danny couldn't live with that. In typical ironic fashion, she didn't want to live without Danny. He thought she could live without him. He had said so in the note. It was unbelievable how dense he could be sometimes. And this time not telling him the truth had cost them both any chance at happiness they had in their lives.

_And you ask  
__Why?  
__When you feel like you can't fly  
You gotta know I got the answer for ya baby,  
Drives ya crazy, it's not over  
There's so much more to life then this  
Why?  
When you feel like you cant cry  
You gotta know I got the answer for ya baby,  
Drives ya crazy it's not over  
There's so much more to life then this _

Sam stepped lightly into Danny's room. They were back from the funeral and most of Danny's close friends and family were at the house for a lunch and sharing stories. Sam had asked Maddie if she could come up here. The older women regarded her for a moment than nodded, telling her to take as much time as she needed. It wasn't time she needed, though. It was her best friend back.

She fell down on to the floor next to the bed where they had found him. There was instantly a stab of pain agianst her shin and she rolled back so she was on her feet. Lying there, half buried in the carpet, was a razor blade. The method of death the police hadn't been able to find. She dropped it lightly into the palm of her right hand. She stared at it almost in a trance. The dried blood along the sharp edge the only remnant of her best friend.

Sam choked back a sob and shifted the deadly object so that she held it between her thumb and her index finger. Sam reached over and rolled the sleeve of her black dress back to her elbow. She brought the razor over to the top of her vein as tears started to well up in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Danny," she breathed to no one as she applied pressure to the little blade and it dug into her skin.

_So much more to life than this…_


	11. Let That Be Enough

_**Let That Be Enough**_

**Summary: Upon getting the call that his girlfriends dead, Danny's world shattered. Now he's lost sitting in the pieces.**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I don't own Let that Be Enough. Switchfoot does.**

**Dedication: To Rainbow Serenity, my longest running Angst Fan. Here's hoping your birthday is great!**

Danny sideways on his bed again in the dark. His head dangled over the side and his hair flipped downward toward the floor. The blood-rush was causing his head to hurt and his temples throbbed from the abuse. His eyes were closed and tears clung to the lashes not entirely sure where to go due to the strange change in gravity.

He opened his eyes just briefly. Normally bright blue eyes had taken on a dull blue-grey from lack of sleep and food. His cheeks stood out more prominently than they should. His eyes burned and felt grainy from lack of sleep and countless tears. But Danny knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep.

He closed his eyes and all he saw was her face frozen as she lie there in the coffin. They had done a good job of "making her look normal." But he could still see the signs of the skin completely gone from her temple when she was thrown from the car. The way her smashed right cheekbone and forehead had made her closed eyes look sunk in and unnatural.

It wasn't something everyone would notice. But they'd been going out for almost six years, since sophomore year of high school. There was no way he could have noticed. He'd finally told her he loved her on her 17 birthday. Now it was their junior year in college. Not theirs anymore, he thought bitterly, his. Sam had been robbed of hers.

_**Wish I had what I needed  
**__**To be on my own  
**__**'Cause I feel so defeated  
**__**And I'm feeling alone**_

The answering machine came on, taking the call that Danny refused to. The recording of his voice sounded so cheerful he wanted to scream. "Hey! It's Danny. You know what to do." Danny glared at the machine as if it was the devil himself. He wished he could destroy it. But at the same time he never wanted to see it change. It was one of the few things that hadn't changed the past week. God knows everything else in his world had.

He glanced over at the desk in the corner of his dorm room that the forsaken machine sat on as the sound of someone having hung up rang through the room. There sat his favorite picture of him and Sam. His mom had taken it on prom night. Tucker, Melanie, and Sam had gotten together at his house to watch movies. They'd managed to stay up till about four o'clock before they all dozed off.

In the picture Sam was curled up in a pair of his pajama pants and an old T-shirt cause she had forgotten her stuff at home. She lay curved into his side, sleeping with her head on his shoulder. He had his cheek resting lightly against the top of her head. Both had small smiles on and there arms around each other. The first time he'd seen the picture was the moment he knew he could never imagine the rest of his life without her. Now that's exactly what he had to do.

_**And it all seems so helpless  
**__**And I have no plans  
**__**I'm a plane in the sunset  
**__**With nowhere to land**_

Danny ignored the covert glances from his family as he walked out of the room. He knew coming back home was a mistake. But there was no way he could sit alone in his dorm room slowly driving himself out of his mind. Jazz had her husband there. Doug was great but it was horrible to watch his big sister get to live her dreams and knowing that he would never see his come true.

He walked through the kitchen, passing the refrigerator he was supposed to be getting a drink from. He walked through the room and slowly started down the stairs. He hadn't been down here in ages. Not since he figured out how to stop the ghost from coming through into this world. He walked over to the Fenton Ghost Portal and ran his fingers over the metal, callused fingers picking up on the subtle texture in the metal.

His eyes stung as the ever-present tears crept up on the edges of his eyes. He rested his forehead against the cool metal, letting his hands fall limply to his sides. He turned so his temple was pressed against the metal and he could stare at the control panel. The red activation switch silently called to him. "It would be so easy, Sam." He whispered brokenly. "It would be so easy," he breathed to the air. He took a ragged breath and squeezed his eyes closed against the pain. "So why is it so hard?"

_**And all I see  
**__**It could never make me happy  
**__**And all my sandcastles  
**__**Spend their time collapsing**_

Twilight settled over the beach and the young man couldn't tear his tortured gaze away from the bright crimsons and fuschias of the sunset. This had always been Sam's favorite place to go, where they could just sit and watch the little children growing up. Sam used to love to watch the little kids play. He'd always loved sitting here with her head on his shoulder. Just sort of dreaming out loud, sharing everything they thought about.

He watched as the tide came in and came slowly creeping towards a little picturesque sandcastle. He had never been able to make sandcastles. Both his best friends and his sister always could. They always assured the distraught raven-haired child that it was easy and he'd get it some day. But every time he would try and pull the bucket away it would crumple into a pile of clumped damp sand.

He remembered their senior year when they had been sitting here watching a little boy build one and Danny had laughed and said he hoped the kid had better luck than he ever did. Sam said "I hope that's sandcastle building thing you don't pass onto our kids." As soon as she said it, her eyes went wide. "I meant your," she said, pink staining her cheekbones.

Danny watched with an almost bitter sense of satisfaction as a wave finally managed to reach high enough to destroy the abandoned little sandcastle.

_**Let me know that you hear me  
**__**Let me know your touch  
**__**Let me know that you love me  
**__**Let that be enough**_

Danny rested his arms against his knees as he slumped against the wall of the empty dorm room. This was the last night it would be empty. Tomorrow a sophomore was moving in. She heard there was an empty single dorm and had jumped at the chance to get it. It didn't matter to her in the least that someone had died so she could have this room.

His eyes misted over as he thought about all the time he'd spent with her here. That was all they'd ever have, what had already happened. He would never spend another moment with her. Part of him wanted to run off into the ghost zone and find her, never let her go. If that meant living the rest of his life in a different world as Danny Phantom he would do it.

But then the sight of her mutilated face would rise in his eyes and fear would clench at his heart. He didn't know if he could stand to see her like that. But if he went and saw her like that, that would be what he would remember her as for the rest of his life. Not the laughing little five-year-old who caught his eye or the gorgeous sixteen-year-old that had stolen his heart. But as a broken remnant of a human and Danny didn't want that. He loved Sam too much to do that to her memory.

_**It's my birthday tomorrow  
**__**No one here could know  
**__**I was born this Thursday  
**__**22 years ago**_

The little faces frozen on the paper smiled up at him. But he wasn't about to smile back at them. He wasn't sure he could if he wanted too. They seemed so young. Tucker didn't even have glasses yet. But it wasn't Tuck his eyes were fixed on. Sam's hair was still its natural dark brown that shone like a halo in the light the seven candles gave off. Little strands escaped the little lose French braid that Jazz had made earlier to prove she could. She looked so much like an angel that Danny couldn't believe it took him nine more years to notice her.

He took a breath, reminding himself it was taken exactly fifteen years ago. It just seemed like just yesterday but at the same time it seemed like several lifetimes. His eyes burned as his throat closed but he refused, to cry again. He slammed the book as hard as he could and shoved it off the desk. It fell to the floor with a sound that resounded like a gunshot through the room. He glanced down at the book to see the page Sam had stuck the three best friends pictures on.

He stared at the girl with a bright smile, wrapped in a black turtleneck and leaning against one of the trees in the City Park. He stared at the little note she had gave him along with the pictures. 'For the best friend I could ever ask for, here's hoping the rest of our lives are as happy as we are now. My Love Forever, Sam.' As he stared at the little note on ivory paper, anger bubbled up inside her. "Liar," he whispered fiercely. His throat burned as his tongue felt thick and refused to cooperate as the tears finally leaked to the corner of blood-shot eyes. "Liar."

_**And I feel stuck  
**__**Watching history repeating  
**__**Yeah who am I  
**__**Just a kid who knows he's needy**_

The little gem glinted in the light coming from the street light outside the dorm window. He rolled his palm slightly and the engraved Casper High around the light stone shone prominently. He looked down at the tiny ring. It was the smallest ring in there class. He'd never really realized how tiny her fingers were until she'd got her class ring. He couldn't have fit it on his pinky when she'd gotten it. The strange thing was Sam hadn't gotten her birthstone, she'd gotten his. She had just said that it was because it was a better color than hers, but her eyes had whispered that there was something more to it than that.

The only jewelry Sam had been buried with was the necklace that Danny had got her as a graduation gift. The one she had told him that she never take off and, to his knowledge, never had. It was a silver locket with a lily engraved on it. It was something Sam had told him about in third grade and he remembered for some reason. Her grandmother always had one her grandfather had given, telling her to put her hopes, dreams, and tears in it for him. Sam had said that someday when she was in love she wanted someone to do that for her.

That was probably the greatest moment of his life. After their graduation party at Tuckers' house, he'd walked her home even though both their families were there and they both could have gotten rides. Standing on her front porch he'd given her the little black box and her eyes lit up. Tears gathered at the corners of her bright amethyst eyes. Smiling, he closed the clasp behind her neck, wiped her tears with his forefinger, and pressed his tear-dampened finger to the locket.

He still saw that moment in his dreams. It haunted him, reminding him that he would never be able to hold her again. But if he was completely honest with himself, Sam had never needed him. Even during the fights with her parents and the taunting from classmates, she always could handle herself. The truth is he was the one who needed her, now more than ever.

_**Let me know that you hear me  
**__**Let me know your touch  
**__**Let me know that you love me  
**__**Let that be enough**_

The faint specter traced a finger across the sleeping young mans jaw. He had cried himself to sleep again and it was killing her. He stirred in his sleep, murmuring her name. A sad smile graced her lips as gray-violet eyes misted. She reached a hand up and brushed his bangs from his forehead. She knew she didn't need to be here, that if he opened his eyes right now it would just make it harder on both of them. She glanced up at the picture of them from after prom on his desk and took a shaky breath.

"Sam." She glanced back down to have pale blue eyes meet her ghostly grey-violet ones. "Sam," he whispered again. He reached up and brushed a hand over her right temple, relief washing over him that smooth pale flesh met his fingers rather than scar tissue and smashed bone.

She reached up and rested her hand against his. "Danny, don't do this." His eyes met hers, his emotions unreadable.

"Your actually here," he breathed. She closed her eyes as she sank down onto a seated position on the edge of the bed.

She took a shaky breath. "I shouldn't be." She opened her eyes to see that he had sat up and was now facing her. "This is just going to make it harder on you." He remind silent, staring at her as if just trying to memorize everything about her. Sam glanced down. "I should go."

His free hand drifted to her wrist. "Don't leave me," he pleaded in a broken whisper. His cry pulled at her heart and tore at it more than watching him dying inside had. Sam couldn't stop herself from leaning forward and brushing her lips against his. Danny's hand went to the back of her neck as he kissed her back with all the emotions that had been running through him the past two weeks.

She pulled back slightly and stared into baby-blue eyes, only inches from her own. "I can't stay. We both know that." She felt the hand he had threaded through her hair curl into a fist, pulling her hair slightly. "I love you," she whispered. "Just let that be enough."


	12. Flying's Nice

_**Flying's Nice**_

**Summary: Danny helps Sam get over her fear of flying. **

**Rating: PG**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does.**

**Dedication: To fluff addicts, cause they rock my world!**

Sam pulled the collar of her black winter coat tighter around her neck and picked up yet another rock out of the flowerpot Maddie had on the front porch and darted back to the edge of the street. She hopped down from the curb, the sound of her boots hitting the compressed snow sounding muffled. She drew back, rocking onto her heals slightly, and tossed it at the window on the far right. She waited a moment and nothing happened. "Come on, Danny," she muttered, her breath appearing in the December air.

Her gaze dropped to the snow-covered sidewalk, scattered with footprints. The sophomore sighed. He was probably already asleep. It was almost eleven and he was leaving to go visit his grandparent's early tomorrow morning. Sam sighed. She guessed she would just have to wait till after Christmas. Something inside her sank at the idea of keeping it a secret anymore. She stared at her black boots, a stark contrast to the white snow. She sighed and turned to go. She trudged over through the ruts made by tires in the snow.

"Sam!" She spun at the voice, her hair swinging forward to brush her check. She grinned the feeling of excitement instantly returning. She bounded across the snow and stood in the little square of light that shone down from his window.

"Hey," she said, sounding slightly out of breath.

He leaned on the windowsill and stared down at her strangely. "Do you know what time it is?" He sounded more whiny than angry.

"Sorry," she grinned, sounding anything but. "I have something for you."

He blinked down at her a few times. "What's that?"

"It's your Christmas present."

There was silence for a moment. "Sam, you already gave me my present. You got me a CD, remember?"

Sam rolled her eyes. He really could be thick sometimes. "That was just because Tucker would laugh at me, so I got that for when we exchanged gifts together." Sam shivered, the winter chill getting to her. "Can I come in? I'm going to freeze."

Danny shook his head, the light source behind him making his expression hard to read. "Mom and Dad already turned on the Fenton Ghost Detector by the front door. We shouldn't risk it."

Sam nodded, pulling her hat more down over her ears. "So any bright idea on how I can give you your present?"

"Give me a sec," he called down softly, as if he had just remembered that the rest of his family was asleep. With that he disappeared from her view.

She sighed, reaching down and running a hand over the tote bag that rested at her hip. The nagging doubt that had been in the back of her mind for the past month crept up on her. Maybe she should have stuck with the CD, something nice and impersonal that she already knew he would like.

A sudden flash of light caught her eye and she looked up just in time to see Danny Fenton drop the last six inches to the ground. "God, it's cold," he murmered, shoving his hands in the pocket of his Casper High Hoodie. Sam bit her lip nervously, _no backing out now._ He flashed her the little boy grin that hadn't changed in all the time she'd known him other than in first grade when he'd lost his baby teeth. She felt the knot in the pit of her stomach lessen slightly. "Come here," he muttered holding out his arms.

Violet eyes went wide. "What," she choked out. Why did she suddenly sound scared? She tried to shake off the feeling.

Even in the darkness she could see the color creep up on his cheeks and she had a feeling it was something beside the chilling wind. "I'll fly you up to my room. Come on."

She felt self-conscious as she stepped forward and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She ignored the thrilled tingling that spread through her. She had to get over this. If she didn't, she was going to do something stupid that could shatter that little bubble of comfort they always felt around each other. She felt rather than saw Danny change back into ghost mode. "Hold on," he whispered in her ear, his breath warm against her frozen check. She barely registered what he said before there suddenly wasn't ground beneath her feet.

With a small gasp, she grasped onto Danny's forearm. His arms tightened at her unease. Somehow this felt different than all the other times he'd flown her somewhere. Then it had usually been with Tucker. The few times it wasn't, she usually just slung an arm over his shoulder and he loosely put a hand on her hip. This somehow felt so much more intimate and at the moment Sam wasn't sure if that was a good thing, as much as part of her was enjoying it.

The moment was over all too soon. Her feet touched down against his bedroom floor followed a moment later by his. He slowly pulled his arms from around her as she stepped away. The empty feeling that was becoming more persistent lately suddenly filled her. She shivered at the emotion.

"I'm sorry," he said softly from behind her, bringing her back to the reality of them hiding in his room without his parents knowledge. "I should have brought you in sooner." With the words came the realization that if his parents walked in at the moment they were both doomed. They didn't have an alibi this time. The doors were locked and it was past curfew. Danny was risking his secret by doing this.

"I shouldn't be here. I should go," she said, keeping her voice low.

Danny shook his head. "You snuck out to give me my present. I'd be a horrible person if I made you walk home again."

Present, Sam blinked. Of course that's why she was here. Why was she loosing her train of thought so often around him these days? She'd thought freshman year was bad; sophomore year was ten times worse. "Yeah, the present."

She pulled off her gloves, tucking them into a pocket. Frozen fingers fumbled with the zipper on her bag for a moment. After getting it open she pulled out the red folder, praying for the countless time that he would like it. She held out the folder noticing the edges seemed to quiver slightly from her shaking hands.

Danny took it a confused look on his face. Sam bit her lip as he read the writing on the cover.

_Dear Danny,_

_I hope you like this. It took me forever to think of something that seemed perfect for you. Merry Christmas!_

_Your Best Friend Forever,_

_Sam_

Danny stared at it for a moment before opening the folder. Sam almost cringed. The idea that had seemed so perfect when she had thought of it in late October now seemed totally idiotic. Why had she even done this? She looked up when she heard Danny gasp. His face was unreadable, causing Sam to worry and start babbling.

"I'm sorry. I know it was stupid. You were just so disappointed when you realized with your science grades that you'd never make it into NASA and I wanted to do something—"

He shook his head and Sam stopped. "You actually did this?" His voice was thick with disbelief. Sam hated herself. It was such a stupid idea. Why had she ever done it? But she instantly knew the answer.

She done it cause she would never forget the devastated look on his face when they had handed out finally grades for Bio I and Danny had only gotten a high D. He'd never get to live his dreams; she could see it in his eyes. In that moment, Danny had given up on the dream that he'd clung to since he was three. He'd realized that he would never measure up to what he'd always aspired to be. And while it had destroyed him, it broke Sam's heart. She would do anything to take away that grade, to make Danny believe himself again. But she couldn't, and she'd been stupid enough to think she could.

So that's where they were now. Standing in Danny's bedroom her stupid mistake looming over their heads. "I just wanted to make you feel better. I know it can never make up for being an astronaut but—"

He dropped to the edge of his bed. But what hit Sam was the slow smile spreading across his features. "It's amazing, Sam."

She blinked a few times, her numb cheeks starting to get feeling in them again. "You—you actually like it?"

He laughed, the little boy grin she loved blossoming on his face. "You actually adopted a star for me?"

"I know it's stupid, but your parents got you that telescope last year and the National Star Registry gives you a star chart so you can find it."

He hopped up, dropping the folder to the bed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her around half a turn before hugging her. Her arms went around his neck without any conscious thought. When he pulled back his face remained within inches of hers. "I love it," he said softly again, reminding himself of his parents.

"Really?" she whispered. A bright smile on her face at his reaction. "Your not just saying this because you think you'll hurt my feelings if—" Danny stepped away from her and pulled the certificate out of the folder. He walked over to his desk and rummaged until he pulled out a roll of masking tape. He marched over to the wall and taped it up right next to his NASA poster that his parents had got him when he was eight.

Sam smiled. "You really like it," she stated, conscious of how loud she was.

"It's great," he said stepping closer so they could whisper. "You really put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"

She shrugged as a wave of self-consciousness washed over her. She looked down. Where his eyes always that deep? "I just hated seeing you pretend it wasn't bothering you all summer."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Am I really that transparent?"

Sam laughed quietly. She locked eyes with him. "I don't think Tucker noticed. I know you better than that."

"I guess you do," he breathed. Sam could have been wrong but she would have sworn his eyes darkened slightly. He leaned in closer to her, his breath feeling warm against her tingling cheek.

Part of Sam whispered that she needed to go and that this could easily get out of hands. The sick part was that part of her wanted it too. Part of her wanted him to close the gap between them and cross that line and never look back. But she'd never tell him that. "I...I should probably get home." Danny blinked and looked down quickly but not near soon enough for Sam not to see the rejection that flitted across his face.

Sam swallowed as the guilt closed her throat. She'd hurt him. She'd come back to take away that haunting disappointment and had just added to it. She hated herself. Could she do anything without hurting someone? She was tired of hurting everyone. Sick of being the one that always got hurt along with them. For once in her life she wanted to be the one that came out unscathed.

She watched as Danny closed his eyes and the light that she was so accustomed to wrapped itself around him. He turned green eyes toward her but wouldn't meet her gaze. "We'd better go." Sam walked over in front of him and his arms went around her from behind. She was glad he couldn't see the tears forming in the bottom edge of her eyes.

She felt her feet leave the ground but this time she didn't grab onto Danny. Her hands automatically went around his arms. She closed her eyes. She gave into the feeling of his arms around her. The lack of heartbeat or breath in ghost mode had always bothered her. It was just unnatural and so hard to get her mind around. But yet she accepted it without question because it was who her best friend had become.

Why was this so hard? He liked her. Of course she wasn't dense enough to not notice that he was having the same feelings. And she knew that she was falling for him. It wasn't a question of that. The question was why was it so hard to watch him fall in love with her? She should be happy, overjoyed. But she was terrified. This was eleven years of friendship they were risking. But yet the little part of her whispered maybe it was eleven years in the making and that was the only reason they had this chance.

But if falling for him was so hard, why was it so easy? She couldn't even tell him when it had gone from annoying her that his bangs fell in his face to making her want to brush them to the side. Suddenly the blue eyes that had always seemed bright seemed so much infinitely deeper. She never noticed how their color seemed to vary with his mood, how they could change hue with his emotions.

She shuddered against him. It seemed so much colder now that they were flying and the wind became a factor. She glanced down, paying attention to the surrounds for the first time the whole flight. A small gasp escaped her chapped lips. All the little houses had on their Christmas lights and off into the distance even the business districts blaring lights seemed nothing more than a soft glow. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?" he murmured against her check.

A shiver crawled up her spine at the feeling of him talking directly into her ear without his warm breath. "It must be magic, even Amity Park looks beautiful." she chided lightly.

He ignored her sarcasm. "Last year, every night around Christmas, I would just fly over the city. For some reason, it made everything I was dealing with seem so much less overwhelming. I mean, all my ghost problems and Paulina and my feelings about you."

She turned to look at him, his faces only inches from her own. "Me?"

He wasn't looking at her he was staring off at some tiny lights off in the distance. "Yeah. I mean after Ember and the kiss and everything. It just made me wonder what I had been overlooking all these years." Sam swallowed, the conversation drifting into dangerous territory. She bit her lip, hardly daring to breathe. "All I kept remembering was that feeling I had when I thought there was something between us. It topped any feeling I'd ever had. It was like flying except so much better."

"That's the problem with flying," she breathed to herself. "The whole time your just getting ready for the crash."

Her eyes widen as he responded, having actually caught the inaudible statement. "You can't do that, Sam. You can't keep worrying about the crash cause then when it comes that's all you remember from the flight."

She shoved her shaking hands into her pocket, wishing her gloves were thicker. "Falling stinks. You could just stay on the ground and go without the flight or the fall."

"That's why you have to make the flight worth the fall." With that he dove towards her house.

He gently settled her on the floor but this time he didn't take his arms away from her waist. She felt him go back to being the Danny she knew and loved. Instantly he seemed to radiate the warmth she always associated with him and his breath caused a little piece of her hair to tickle her check. Sam turned slowly in his arms, his last statement echoing hauntingly through her mind. "You really believe, that don't you?"

"Believe what?" he said, looking lost in her eyes. The gaze sent a shiver up her spine.

She swallowed. Her throat suddenly felt dry. "What you said about making the flight worth the fall."

"Mmm-hmm." Danny leaned in for the second time that night.

Sam somehow didn't have the strength to pull away this time. "Danny," she whispered questioningly. There was no backing out of this one, no alibi. This kiss would be for no other reason than the two of them needed this.

"Shh..." He breathed, his breath feeling hot against her frozen lips. "Just let it happen." And with that his lips met hers. Sam felt her lips soften under his as his hand drifted up to rest on her neck, rubbing a thumb across her frozen check. The world seemed to drop away as she lost herself in the feeling. Her arms went around his neck has his slipped free arm wrapped around her small waist, pulling her closer.

Danny finally pulled away for breath, his face still only inches from her own. She searched his gaze, uncertainty obvious in her own stare. He smiled, his eyes shining with this happy completed look. He was always second-guessing everything. How could he look so confident about this?

"Still scared of falling?" He asked, wrapping his other arm around her waist and holding her close.

She found herself unable to look away from his crystal-blue stare. "Maybe a little," she whispered, tucking her head on his shoulder. A smile curved her lips. "But it's okay. Flying's nice."


	13. Why?

_**Why?**_

**Summary: Sam can't understand why her mom doesn't want her playing with Tucker.**

**Rating: PG**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does.**

**Author's note: I'm apologizing if I offend anyone. Or maybe I'm not, maybe if this offends you, you need a reality check. I live in a small 95 white town. I just got fired from an uptown babysitting job because I let the girl play with an African American child who was at the park. So I'm taking a break from Taking Over Me right now because I feel this point needs to be made.**

Her mother zipped up the perfect fluffy little white and pink coat with the matching mittens and hat. She stood as still as she could, just rocking on her heels, waiting for her mother to let her go.

"Sammy!" She looked over her shoulder at the sound of her name. There, covered in dirt, were two boys from her class waving furiously at her. Danny played blocks with her when it rained and Tucker sat next to her at craft time. Her little face lit up as she waved back.

Her mother turned away and the little girl scampered of across the wood chips, laughing. "Hey Sammy!" Tucker gushed. Danny just grinned.

She smiled. "Hi!"

"We're making a sand castle. Wanna make the garage?"

The little girl blinked, dark brows drawing together in confusion. "Why are you making a garage?"

Tucker laughed at her. "Because what good castle doesn't have a garage? Besides, all rich people who live in a castle have them!"

"Oh," Sam said. She bit her lip. "Can I make it however I want?"

"Sure," Danny handed her a little blue bucket. And all three of them hit there knees. The castle and two-car garage was quickly starting to take shape. Sand got wedged under little finger nails and dirty circles appeared on there knees from crawling around on the sandbox.

"And it has a fireplace," Tucker added as they discussed the castle in depth.

Danny laughed. "Just one?"

"It has to have at least seven," the little girl added, little pigtails flipping as she looked up.

Tucker grinned, white teeth contrasting against his darker skin. "I bet it has even more than that."

Danny opened his mouth to bring up the next modern commodity found in their castle. "Samantha!" Sam looked over the puffy shoulder of her little pink coat.

"That's my mom."

Tucker brushed some sand off his hands. "Do you have to go now?"

She shook her tiny head, dark brown hair dusting her cheeks. "I don't think so."

"Sammy, come here, sweetie!" She hoped up sand falling down her legs, some of it into her little Seasame Street shoes. She darted back across the woodchips that covered the playground and skidded to a stop in front of her mom.

Sammy looked up expectantly. Her mother seemed to pause for a moment. "Sweetheart, I think maybe it would be better if you played with those girls over there." She looked over to where her mom was pointing. Two little girls in perfect little pale purple coats were on the teeter-totter. There pale skin and light blonde hair shone in the late September sun.

Sammy looked back at her mom. "Why?"

Her mom seemed to pause, searching for words. "Well, they are little girls like you."

"But Danny and Tucker are in my class."

Her mom swallowed. "But, Sammy I don't know anything about there parents."

The pale little face lit up. "Tucker's mom and dad are here," she said grabbing her mommy's hand and pulling.

"Which one's Tucker?"

Sam pointed. "He has a blue coat."

"I don't think I can meet his parents." She glanced back up at her mother. Her mother was staring off at Tucker's parents strangely, that way she always stared at that homeless guy at the stop light by McDonalds.

She didn't understand. Tucker's daddy was nice. He was a fireman. He came in and taught everyone all about what to do if your house caught on fire. Tucker had told his dad that she was one of his friends. Tucker's dad had bent down and told Tucker he was lucky to have such a cute little girl as his friend. Her own daddy didn't say nice things to her like that.

"You have to go home, Sammy." The little girl looked back at her friends. She took a few steps back towards the sandbox. "Where are you going?"

She turned. "I want to say goodbye."

Her mother looked back at them. "Not today, angel." Her mommy bent down and took her hand, leading the small girl away. Sammy didn't understand what she'd done wrong. She didn't understand what she'd done wrong. She didn't understand why she couldn't tell the two boys goodbye. Maybe when she grew up she would understand. Maybe.


	14. Everybody Grows Up Sometime

_**Everybody Grows Up Sometime**_

**Summary: Secrets in Sam's life lead to a discussion of what she's doing with her life.**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.**

**Dedication: To Moody Maud, Hope your birthday is something special!**

Danny smiled again trying to ignore the fact that the bright Friday night football lights were blinding him. The football players held their helmets and the cheerleaders held roses that the sports boosters had given them. Those who weren't involved in fall sports, like Danny, just stood there. "Everyone one last round of applause for the Class of 2007."

The clapping slowly died, then they went back to pre-game announcements. Danny followed everyone off the football field. Tucker sighed from where he stood next to him alphabetically. "Photos are done, now comes the meet-and-greet portion." Danny just turned and smiled at him as they filed off the field.

No sooner were they off when his father slipped an arm around his neck. "I'm so proud of you, son. Senior night. Of course you're not as involved as your sister, but still."

"Thanks, Dad...I think." He blinked against the flash of light. His mother grinned at him, lowering the camera, followed shortly by Tucker's parents coming over. The adults talked and the two teens laughed about the way the cheerleaders hadn't had time to do their make-up and were complaining about it.

"So where are the Manson's?" Danny looked over at Tucker. "I figured they'd drop in and say hi."

"You didn't hear? They had a major fight in front of Sam last night. I guess her mom let it slip that Sam isn't hers."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'isn't hers'?"

Tucker shrugged. "I guess Mr. Manson had an affair and the woman dumped Sam on him."

"When did you find this out?" Danny sounded mortified, even to his own ears. Tucker looked embarrassed.

"She called me last night in tears."

Danny's eyes went wide; he couldn't help it. "She called you?"

Tucker shook his head. "I know. I thought if anything she'd call you."

"So where are they?"

Tucker glanced over at him. "Sam said she told them not to come."

Danny hissed between his teeth. "Your kidding," he muttered. "But Sam was all hyped up about this being our chance to be recognized as the senior class."

Tucker just shook his head. "I guess things can happen that change your life," he said. "You know that better than anyone."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sam pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. She leaned against the tree and stared through the chain-link fence at all the laughing people, cheering fans as the teams came out, and screaming children. She watched a particular little girl try to get her dad's attention by pulling at his coat. He waved her away and continued talking.

Tears welled up in violet eyes as she stared out at them. She wanted to march out there and shake him tell his teeth rattled. Part of her said she didn't know where the feeling came from but Sam couldn't help but remember all the times she'd pulled at her dad's jacket, wanting him to look at her finger painting or spelling quiz and tell her it was good. He would just wave her away and march off to some board meeting.

She'd never had a really father figure and now her mother wasn't hers and said she had never wanted to be. She glanced over by the forty-yard line where both her friends and their parents, barely visible from this angle. She felt a wave of jealous sweep over her. Danny's parents were ghost hunters but they still doted on their half-ghost son. If they could still love Danny, why couldn't her parents love her?

She rested her check on her knee and shivered the late September air getting cold as the sun sank. She looked at the lights, tears blurring them into little white cross-shaped streaks as she squinted. She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes. Last night replayed in her head, words sounding as clear as if her mother was standing there screaming them.

The fence in front of her rattled and her eyes flew open. "Is there a reason you're back here crying and missing your only Senior Night?" Danny stood there, forehead resting against the metal links, fingers interlaced through the different diamond shaped wire openings.

She wiped furiously at the tears with the back of her hand. "It's nothing." Danny glanced quickly over both shoulders. Seeing that no one was paying particular attention to the two seventeen-year-olds, he quickly went intangible and passed through the fence. "One of these days you're going to get caught."

He shrugged drooping to the ground next to her. "Everybody would just think they were seeing things and blow it off." The two seniors sat there in silence for a moment. She could feel his gaze on her but she resolutely stared at a starburst wrapper that was caught on the fence. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

Sam shook her head, the two red and black ribbons in her hair dancing slightly. "It's not your problem."

There was a second before he answered, his voice sounding much more sincere than normal. "If it's bothering you, it's bothering me."

"Whatever," she murmured, as if that would cause the whole conversation to cease. She stared up for a moment. The autumn moon had an almost copper color to it. On any other night it would have been pretty. She tried to laugh it came out as a half sob. "It's not like Tucker didn't tell you."

Danny fell silent for a moment. "Shouldn't he?" Sam looked over at him and instantly knew it was a mistake. His sky blue eyes seemed so much dark and infinitely deeper in the semi-darkness.

Sam swallowed. "I don't know. It's easier to not have to tell you."

"But you could tell Tucker, you just couldn't tell me." She couldn't help but hear the betrayal in his voice.

She turned to face him. His expression had changed in that instant she hadn't been looking. His jaw was set firmly and his eyes screamed at her as if she had stabbed him in the back. She looked away. "It's not like that."

"Oh, and how is it not?" Sam pulled her knees closer to her, the damp ground soaking into her jeans. She rested her check against her knee turning away from him. He sighed. "I didn't mean it to come out like that. It just hurts that you could tell Tucker and not me."

She shook her head. "It's not that I couldn't tell you. It's just Tucker leaves me to handle my own problem, where as you take it on yourself to help me solve it."

She glanced over at him. The lights from the field fell over his features and making a stark contrast between the dark shadows and the bright light. Her breath caught in her throat. Why didn't she ever notice that he was growing up? It was almost impossible to believe that he was the same little bright eyed boy who'd befriended the quiet little girl in kindergarten. Moisture gathered in her downcast eyes. "When did everything change?"

He looked over at her. Blue eyes almost seemed to glow in the shadows and ambient light. "What do you mean?"

She bit her lip. "When did everything stop being easy? When things like this didn't happen?"

"Is this about your parents," he questioned gently. Sam wiped furiously at her tears, pressing almost painfully against her cheekbone with enough pressure to bruise it.

"No," she looked up at him only to look back down. "I don't know." She looked up the copper color of the moon melting into more of a gold that would slowly turn into silver as the game stretched on. "It just scares me."

She felt Danny's warm hand rest on her shoulder. It felt unnaturally warm compared to the cold tingling that was all she felt. "What scares you?"

"Nothing," she breathed, turning to look at him. She instantly almost drowned in his earnest blue eyes. "Everything." This time Danny didn't ask her to explain but his palm began rubbing small, perfect circles on her shoulder blade. She took that as his silent encouragement for her to continue. "It's as if I just woke up for the first time, and figured out the dream I had been living up until now was all a lie."

She sighed. "I don't expect you to understand. I _couldn't_ expect you to understand even if I wanted you too. The people I always thought loved and cared about me don't."

"They still care," he whispered, which was almost lost as a cheer rose from the high school football fans as the Ravens made first and ten. Both seventeen-year-olds looked up at the cheering fans.

Sam ran a finger across her lower eyelid. "Maybe. I don't get it, Danny. I've always been the one that was so excited about getting out of this stupid town. And now I'm almost free of it and I'm petrified."

"You'll be fine." He started to say more but seemed to trail off when Sam shook her head.

"If I would have been fine, why am I so scared to leave?"

The hand slid from her shoulder blade and Danny dropped it back to his side. "At least you can leave," he murmured bitterly.

A wave of guilt instantly washed over Sam. This was a topic they'd discussed before and every time it came up she wished it wouldn't. Danny was stuck her, chained to the machine that had already ruined his life. He would have given anything to be able to leave, follow his dream, but he was denied that. Sam felt a fresh tear burn it's way down her frozen cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

He shook his head. "It's nothing you did. I was the one stupid enough to wander into that stupid machine." They sat there in silence for a moment. "Maybe your afraid of what your leaving behind."

Sam swallowed the lump in her throat. She leaned over towards him, her head falling limply against her shoulder. "I'm not scared of leaving my parents," she scoffed.

"I didn't mean that," he whispered. His breath felt warm against the side of her cheek and Sam shuddered slightly. "I meant just having to face a whole new day to day life. Never have to spend seven solid hours in CHS. Not have to put up with Tucker and me being idiots at the movies. Never have to go ghost hunting with me." His voice seemed to trail of on the last one.

Sam pulled back slightly to look at him. "You're going to be battling ghost all by yourself," she whispered.

He shot her a look before looking away. "It's not a new concept," he murmured with a shrug.

But to Sam suddenly it was. He wouldn't have anyone to cover for him. If he got hurt, there was no one to help make sure he got home. There was no one to stop him from doing those crazy suicidal missions he got his mind set on sometimes. There was no one to watch him.

Sam suddenly felt guilty for leaving him here to face all that alone. He needed someone who he knew he could trust, who could get his back for him. _Like me_, she thought bitterly. She instantly shooed that thought away. This was her chance to be free of everything she had always been, to leave this town where she was "that rich guys daughter". Go somewhere and start over again. To be totally free of all those bonds that had been killing her for the past few years.

The crowd gave another large cheer drowning out the sound of her sigh. "I'll go out of my mind worrying about you."

"You shouldn't." He said, but he sounded anything but sure. Danny always had been lousy at lying. It was somehow comforting to know that four years of living a secret life hadn't changed that.

"Don't change on me," she whispered. He looked over, blinking a few times at the sudden change in topic.

He smiled a sort of slow smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Everyone changes, Sam. You've changed just as much as anyone else."

She tucked dark brown hair behind her ear. "Why does that scary me suddenly? It never scared me before."

"You never let it before," he stated simply.

She whirled, turning so that she faced him. "Are you saying I'm letting it scare me now?"

He looked far off, the distant football lights casting highly contrasted shadows across his face. The chain link shadows giving him a sort of haunted look. "Maybe." He reached a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck. "We're growing up, Sammy."

Her mood lifted a miniscule amount at the use of the child hood nickname. "I never would have guessed," she breathed, a hint of her old sardonic speech pattern creeping up on them both.

"Everybody's got to grow up sometime, I guess."

She looked down. "I thought we'd already done that."

A hand brushed against her cheek, lingering slightly against the evaporating tear streaks. "We've started growing up. We're just not quite there yet."

"How do you know when you're grown up?" She murmured. "I mean a week ago, I would have sworn I was an adult, that stuff like my parentage wouldn't have bothered me."

He lifted her chin and she forced her lilac eyes to meet his earnest ice-blue ones. "Of course it would. It attacks the very core of who you are."

"And who do you think I am?" She swallowed unable to look away.

He smiled, this one reaching his eyes, which were the only thing she was focused on at the moment. "I don't think I know you, I do. Your Sam Manson; the little brown haired girl who thought she could fly; The fourth grader who told me she was going to change the world; the sophomore who told me that we couldn't ever be more than friends. You're a beautiful young women who will get whatever she wants out of life."

She swallowed as he moved in closer unable to look away. "How can you see that in me? I'm some 'damned affair child' that nobody wants."

His eyes seemed to darken a shade, "I want you."

"No, you don't," she whispered.

He shook his head minutely, his face only inches from hers now. "You have no idea what I want."

Sam watched wordlessly as he leaned forward and kissed her. She moaned in protest but didn't pull away. This couldn't happen. This is what she had been fighting against since seventh grade. This could wreck everything between them. She pulled back slightly resting her forehead against his.

"You can't want this."

His blue eyes opened only inches from hers, a darker color than Sam ever remembered seeing them. "If I could have what I want, Sam, you wouldn't be sitting here crying. I wouldn't be facing being a half-ghost alone next year. And you wouldn't be walking away from me."

"I'm not walking away." Even Sam could here the catch in her voice.

He searched her gaze piercingly. "That's exactly what you're doing. Why are you leaving, Sam?"

She swallowed. "What do you mean?"

"You have always said you have to get away from Amity Park, not your parents, Amity Park. You're running from something," he said.

"I am not," she countered, but her statement lacked the conviction his had.

Danny shook his head, blue eyes gleaming intently, as if he could see things about her that even she couldn't. "You are, Sam. You asked me what you're afraid of? I could tell you, but you're not going to like my answer."

She swallowed. "I'm not afraid of staying," she whispered. "I'm afraid of what would happen if I do."

"And what do you think is going to happen," he whispered, his voice lower than usually.

She shuddered, and he smiled slightly. "That I'll do something stupid, and wreck our lives like mine wrecked my parents."

"We're not your parents, Sam," he bit out.

She shook her head. "But nothing good ever comes out of things like that."

"Of course it does! My parents fell in love after high school. They're happy. Jazz and I are happy. Not all love ends in affairs and divorce, Sam."

She looked away, no longer able to take his gaze. "You don't want to fall in love with me."

"It's a little late for that," he murmured.

She snapped her head up, a spark of anger obvious in the lavender depths. "And what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and live with you happily ever after?"

His eyes narrowed. "I expect you to trust me enough to take me at my word that I won't hurt you."

"You can't promise me something like that."

Blue eyes drifted closed and rigid shoulder seemed to drop in defeat. "You're right. I can't. But what I do promise is that I think our friendship is strong enough to survive anything we go through." Sam bit her lip, unsure of where to go from there. "Finding out your life isn't what you thought it was hurts, Sam. I know. Believe me, I do. I don't want to lose you over this."

Sam sighed. "You won't lose me."

"I already have. You're leaving. You're giving up before you start."

Sam looked away. She turned her back to him and stared out at the white lights. Her gaze drifted back to the little girl whose dad had been ignoring her. She was now situated on her dad's shoulders, clapping and laughing. Sam didn't have to be like her parents. She could be whoever she wanted to be. "It wouldn't be easy," she whispered.

"I wouldn't expect it to be," he replied. "Nothing that's worth it is."

Sam sighed. "You can't just give up on me, cause that's what I'll want you to do."

"I wouldn't," he murmured. "I never have." She turned and seeing the hope in his eyes, felt her reserve crumble. "You really mean this? A really try at a relationship."

Sam nodded. "A really try at a relationship. We'll see where we end up." She smiled shakily, shoving her insecurities away. "Now, try and convince me this was a good thing."

Blue eyes lit up as he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. "Whatever you want, Sam."


	15. The Only Gift That I Need

_**The Only Gift That I Need**_

**_Summary: Danny and Sam are faced with the idea of Christmas apart but Danny has other plans. _**

**_Rating: G_**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does. I do not own Only Gift that I Need, Dashboard Confessional does._**

**_Dedication:_ _This one is going out to Obi-quiet for being so supportive of me lately! Obi, you're an amazing fan and I enjoy talking to you._**

**_Author's note: Want to hear the song? Http : / music / resource / TheOnlyGiftThatINeed . mp3 Just delete the spaces!_**

Danny resisted the urge to slam his head into the wall of his and Sam's. "I'm sorry," Sam said through the phone for the ninth time. "It's just this is a one time opportunity, Danny."

He almost growled. "Sam, this internship was supposed to be over _Spring_ break. Not Christmas. You promised when you couldn't come home this summer that there was nothing that would stop you from coming home for Christmas."

"Do you think I asked for this? They told me if I want this job this is when they'll take me. I'm really sorry, Danny. I'd give anything to be home for Christmas."

Danny shifted the phone against his ear. "Wouldn't _anything_ entail telling them 'No, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to go home and spend Christmas with my husband who I haven't seen since Thanksgiving and even then, only for two days!'?"

They sat there for a moment neither one of them speaking. It was killing Danny to be arguing with her, especially when they hadn't seen each other in forever. "I'm sorry that you hate me," she bit out.

He sighed, suddenly weary of this whole situation. "I don't hate you, you know that. I'm just frustrated and I'm taking it out on you. This is the job you've always dreamed of. I should be shot if I made you give it up for me."

"I promised I'll come home as soon as I can. Danny, I have to go or I'm going to be late for my accounting final."

He sighed, forcing a weak smile. "I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"I'll be online about nine o'clock tonight."

He glanced at the clock. "Your time or mine?"

"Your's. I'll see you on okay?"

He ran a hand through his hair glancing at the book for art appreciation that he was supposed to be going through for his ten o'clock final tomorrow. "Sure. I love you. Good luck on your final."

She laughed through the phone, but instead of making him feel better it reminded him that he wasn't seeing her in two days. Suddenly, Christmas seemed much bleaker. "Thanks I'm going to need it. Love you too. Bye." And with that the call ended. Danny tossed the cell phone angrily at the desk. When Sam had accepted a scholarship to a school three states away, he knew that it would be hard to have a wife several states away but going this long with only phone calls and emails was rubbing on him.

The two of them had gotten married less than a month after graduation. It worried both their parents that they were making this commitment so young but everyone else seemed to think it was about time. Sam had wanted to major in business marketing, insisting she wanted to fix corporate America from the inside out, and Danny felt that going into science and studying the paranormal was one of the few things he could actually excel at. Sam had gotten in her basic curriculum at Usher College, where Danny was still attending, then transferred to a school with a better program.

He glared at his _The Marvels of European Renascence Artist_ as if his ten o'clock was the reason his spouse wasn't coming home. He let out a frustrated sigh and dropped back down onto his bed. This was just getting worse as the day went on. He reached over to the little nightstand next to his bed, hardly big enough for the lamp and digital alarm clock that sat upon it.

He felt around without looking over until his hand closed around the handle for the drawer. He pulled it open and felt around deftly for the little box in the right corner that he knew was there. He opened the box. The little ring was modest but he hadn't had the money in high school to get her one. And he was to busy hunting ghost to get a job to pay for one. It was a vicious cycle.

Upon the light hitting it, it seemed to glitter more brightly than the day he picked it out. He felt sick. It was as if that stupid little stone that he'd spent his past three months savings on was mocking him. He had been eating nothing but generic cereal for almost all of the first semester of his Senior year so that he would have a ring he was actually proud to give her. Something that reminded him of her, that he looked at and just thought that was perfect.

It was supposed to be perfect. He slammed his head back into the pillow, snapping shut the black velvet ring box. He was so disgusted with himself. He couldn't even plan to make up for his mistakes without life stabbing him in the back. Sometimes he really, _really_ wished he was just like everyone else...

**_You'll be leaving' for the winter  
_**_**but I'll concede that it's true  
**__**It's the right thing for you  
**__**but it's tough to be moved with the holiday spirit  
**__**And to tell you the truth  
**_**_I had big plans for Christmas and high hopes for you_**

Sam dropped the suitcase into the alcove by the door of the hotel room. The company was putting her up here. She had to admit it wasn't terrible, not by a long shot, but she had stayed at much better. She sighed. Why was she even here? She should be at home. But this was a job she'd been wanting for forever something that Sam could actually see herself doing and happy for the rest of her life. And of course, in order to be happy for the rest of her life, she was spending December 23 alone in this hotel room.

She fell back onto the cheep comforter feeling horrible. Having to take summer semester so that she could make up the six hours of credit that wouldn't transfer and get ahead of the others had seemed like such a good idea at the time. But then she had figured she was going home for Christmas and that that would make up for it. Danny had to work this summer anyway. Maybe it would have been easier on them both if they had just waited till after college to get married, like everyone had been suggesting. She sighed. Thinking negatively wasn't going to help. It was Christmas time, after all.

She let her gaze drift to the little bit of scenery that was visible from her window. Visions of skyscrapers and concrete drifted back to her. There wasn't even any snow. It just made the whole thing seem less like the magical time that she had associated with Christmas the past two years. They had been a starting of couple in a lousy apartment on a half-decent side of town; the kind of neighborhood that would have a nice house next to a run-down one. But it was a neighborhood that Danny felt comfortable to leave Sam home alone in and they could still afford the rent on two part time jobs.

Sam sighed. Their first Christmas together had come only weeks after finalizing everything on the apartment. The day after Christmas was when the carpet was set to be installed. So Christmas eve and Christmas day had been spent painting all of the four rooms in the meager little apartment and getting into paint-fights when the opportunity arose.

The next year Danny and Sam were the uncle and aunt of a beautiful baby girl and Jazz couldn't of been doing better. It was the baby that was the question. She was a very sickly little baby. And it was around Christmas that Jazz's husband had gone on business so the Fenton kids, Sam and little baby Alisa had been ordered to spend the Christmas with Jack and Maddie so everyone could help out on baby duty. Danny had been the star at it though. Maybe it was because her dad wasn't there but for some reason Alisa really took a shine to her uncle.

It was a blessing in disguise. Jazz needed the break after a week of taking care of the baby herself. But it had been in that week that Sam had realized just how great a father Danny was going to be. It was a good thing, too. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of a mother she'd make. But Danny just loved kids and kids loved him. They'd discussed the subject and decided they would wait until after college. Sam sighed looking over at the mirror across from the bed. Her reflection stared back, pale and tired looking. Wouldn't it be wonderful if for once their lives went according to plan?

_**I want you here by my side  
**__**Cold nights and fires and white wine  
**__**And dreams of holidays to come  
**__**But I'll wait for spring to bring you to me  
**__**The only gift that I need **_

Danny couldn't believe that he was actually doing this. But sitting their talking to her tonight, he was realizing how selfish he was being. How come she was always the one who had to come home? How come he hardly ever went to see her. Because Sam's parents would pay for her to fly back and Danny and Sam's budget couldn't afford for the ticket to come out of savings. But he had decided in that instant that the only gift he had wanted this year was to have Sam home. And if Mohammed couldn't go to the mountain, the mountain would come to Mohammed.

Danny leaned back in the chair and glanced out the window at the darkened country side below. If there wasn't a wind chill of negative twenty tonight he would have just flown. But when his parents had called and asked one last time if he wanted anything for Christmas, this time he did ask for something. The plane ticket had probably been more than they were expecting him to ask for but it had been all he'd wanted. His mom was always a sap for romantic movies and had mentally warped this into some moment off _Sleepless in Seattle_ rather than a simple trip to see Sam.

Sam had no idea. It been killing him to talk to her all night knowing that he was taking the red-eye flight out to see her and not drop any hints. He wanted this to be a totally surprise. Sam disserved it. She was already stressing over every aspect of this internship. Last night, a half-hour of their conversation was spent expressing exactly what she wanted to say to her boss about his work ethics. Danny smiled. She sure knew how to make the holidays interesting.

Phone calls and emails were the highlight of his life anymore. That seemed almost pathetic, that he was married and the thing he looked forward to the most was cards, letters, emails, and phone calls. But even if it was the highlight of his life it was the days that she actually came home that made it worth living. It was hard living in their apartment without her. The 22-year-old sighed. He thought that for someone who dealt with the paranormal as often as him, a simple memory filled apartment wouldn't fazed him.

He couldn't wait to have her back home. But strangely it was the littler things that made him miss her the most. The way Sam could never stand the coffee table at an angle so he would give it a little nudge every time he walked by. He missed the way she would hum to herself when she was tired and half the time didn't even notice. It wasn't the big things he noticed; it was always the little ones. But at least he noticed things; that was one step up from his dad.

Despite all the hardships, the fact that neither of them could cook, and they were barely making ends meet, he never regretted for a moment marrying her. Even if he had only got to see her for a few days at Thanksgiving and an occasional weekend this summer, Sam was still his angel. He couldn't imagine surviving any of this without her. He knew that they weren't out of the woods yet, things would probably get worse before they got better. But at least it was Sam he had to go through it all with.

_**I'll be living off your phone calls and your letters and your postcards  
**__**Every single word is like a secret wish come true  
**__**Well, who cares if we're apart for the big days  
**__**It's the small ones that made me fall in love with you**_

The cell phone split the silence in the darkened room. A hand came out and smacked at the cell phone a few times before her fingers started to function and she managed to grasp the object. Sam pressed it against her ear, raising her head briefly. "Hello?"

Danny's laughter floated out of the receiver. "Good morning, sunshine." God, she hated how he was a morning person. "Wakie, wakie; eggs and bakie."

Sam fell back onto her stomach and turned her face sideways so she could still talk. "Fenton, if you say another word to me, I swear you're a dead man."

"Aw, come on, Sammy!" He whined, still overly cheerful. "It's Christmas Eve, your loving husband decided to be the first thought on your mind—"

"The first thought that crossed my mind was 'I'm going to kill whoever's on the phone.'" Sam yawned into the phone, closing her eyes and snuggling slightly into the pillow. "What time is it anyway?"

She could almost hear him grin. "Six fifteen."

Sam groaned. "Six fift—As soon as I see you, Daniel James Fenton, you're a dead man." She opened her mouth to continue the threat but was cut off by a pounding at the door. "God, there is someone else out there as stupid as you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She smiled just picturing the overly confused look on his face.

She dropped her voice to a whisper. "There's somebody at the door."

There was a moment of silence. "Do I want to know why you have people at your door at six o'clock in the morning?"

Sam grinned. "It's probably my Latin lover, Carlos." Sam emphasized the name, pronouncing it in almost perfect Spanish and rolling the 'r' just to spite her husband. Danny just laughed. "No es comico. Quiero Carlos. El es mi hombre. No necesito tu."

"Sam!" he protested over her laughing. "That's not fair. You know I can't understand a word of that!"

Sam smiled swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "That's what you get for dropping foreign language! You should have stuck with it, not just Spanish one."

He snorted. "Oh, like you're much better! You only took it till Spanish three."

Sam opened her mouth to retort but was cut of by another round of knocking on the door. "Danny, I don't think this person is going to go away."

"Maybe you should just open it," he suggested, smirk resounding in his voice.

Sam padded over to look through the little viewing whole on the door. "Sure I'm going to just invite some random stranger in for Christmas Eve break—" The conversation ended abruptly with the cell phone falling to the carpet.

Sam flung open the door to see Danny standing there cell phone against his ear, smile plastered across his face. Sam let out a scream and launched herself at him. He dropped his cell phone and caught her deftly, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Happy two-days-till-boxing-day, Sammy," he whispered.

Sam let out a laugh, smile still prominent. She buried her face in his neck, breathing in. "Dork," she whispered back.

He drew back slightly. "Hey! I just traveled all the way here to get called names. That's not very nice."

She grinned, "I'm not very nice." She bent over to grab his cell phone, switching it off. She stood back up and just stared into blue eyes for a moment or two. "Merry Christmas, Danny," she said softly smile on her face.

Danny flashed her that little boy grin that she loved. "Merry Christmas, Sammy." His grin widened. "Is this the part where you kill me for waking you up now?"

_**I want you here by my side  
**__**Cold nights and fires and white wine  
**__**And dreams of holidays to come  
**_**_And I can't wait for spring to bring you to me  
_**_**The only gift that I need **_

"I can't believe that you're actually here," Sam murmured from the couch, curled up watching some version of the Christmas Carol. It could have been the Muppet one for all she cared at the moment. Danny was sitting over at the rooms table working on something on a piece of paper with a pen. He looked over his shoulder and flashed her a grin before going back to working on whatever it was. "What in the world are you doing?"

Sam twisted her ring and smiled again. The two silver bands twisted together never separating except for where the diamond was set in between them. It was gorgeous and she adored the symbolism behind it. She sighed snuggling into the couch before look over to Danny for a reply. He smiled at her, obviously just watching her. . It had been a perfect day, and tomorrow when they woke up it would be Christmas could life get any better?

"Making us a Christmas tree," he replied. "Wanna help me decorate it?"

Sam looked over at him. "Please tell me you're joking." Danny's hand stilled and his eyes flashed with disappointment. Remorse instantly washed over her. She reached over to her nightstand and picked up one of the hotel issued pins that was next to the phone. She got up and crossed over to where he was. She dropped lightly into his lap. "What do I do?" she asked looked down at the cookie-cutter type tree.

"Draw an ornament; we'll take turns." He smiled drawing a simple little about halfway up the tree. Sam in turn drew a little heart-shaped one. "Cute."

She smiled, turning slightly in his lap to face him better. "Well, all yours are boring circles." He pocked her lightly in the side with the other end of his pen before drawing another boring circle. "This isn't bad."

"How could it be? We're together for Christmas."

Sam grinned, a twinkle lighting up her violet eyes. "My turn," she said. Reaching over to the paper she drew a little circle with a handle on it.

She turned to watch her husband's reaction. Danny stared at it for a moment, brows knitted together. "What's that supposed to be?"

Sam bit her lip, not sure whether to be nervous or fighting a smile. "It's a baby rattle."

Bright blue eyes widened in surprise. "Why'd you draw that?"

A small smile curved her lip as she slipped her hand into his. "You're a science major. You try and figure it out."

**_The only gift that I need  
The only gift that I need  
The only gift that I need_**


	16. My New Year's Resolution

**_My New Years Resolution._**

**Summary: Sam finally cracks after one jibe too many about her recently murdered friend.**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does. **

**Dedication: To Mary, I'm sorry I was never a good best friend.**

Shut up! Yeah, that's right. I talked back in front of all your friends. That's what you get for dragging me down here to your New Years Party. I could have sat up in my room and, what is it you called it? Oh, yes; "obsess rather than move on." You know what, Mom? I really don't care about you're petty little image. I couldn't care less! I'm sick of you trying to pretend this didn't happen. It did.

I know I'm attracting attention. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. You always were good for that. Allow me to point out the obvious, my best friend is dead. I watched them get murdered and I didn't raise a finger to stop it. That's why Danny's dead. And that's why I'm still here.

You want to know the truth? Because you don't have a clue as to what actually happened. I was going to get married that night. I know, jaw dropping isn't it? How you ask? Oh, I don't need your permission. I'm pregnant. That's right, Mom and Dad. Your perfect little sixteen-year-old got knocked up. Aren't ya proud of me? Isn't this what you always wanted while you were trying to control my life? Yay for you. You've got it. Yep, Merry late Christmas, you two, you're gonna be grandparents.

Oh, I would have someone standing here with me when I told you. But he's dead now. Danny died and it's all my fault. He told me to stay right there, at the park, that he'd be right back. He had to go call Tucker and Jazz on a payphone cause his cell phone was dead. They were going to be our witnesses for the wedding. We were going to rent a little hotel room and the four of us would hide out for the night. All that was left was to call them.

I should have just gone with him. What harm could it have done? My brain should have red flagged. A sixteen-year-old girl standing in a park by herself at eleven o'clock at night is not good. But I stayed.

I lied when I said I didn't know our attackers. I lied to the police, I lied to you guys, but above all, I lied to myself. It was the same people who had been abusing Danny for three years of high school. The torment had been getting progressively worse every year. Why did we never see it coming? The four of them snuck up around me and grabbed my arm.

I must have screamed. I really don't remember screaming but I must have, cause the next thing I knew Danny was back. He tried to take on all four of them. Last year he could have done it. Before he gave up his pow—nevermind. But last year he could have taken them. But this year by himself he didn't stand a chance.

They held me and I watched them beat him. They kicked him and hit him. And once they had him down, they slammed his head into the concrete sidewalk. It's all I see in my nightmares is that panicked look in his eyes before they slammed his temple down against the ground. He was still conscious after that, but he wasn't all there. Something was wrong, he was in shock or confused or something.

That's when the worst happened. They slit his throat. The look in his eyes I'll never forget. It was like I was the only thing I could see; like the only thought going through his mind was me and his baby, the one I'm carrying; like he couldn't understand why I hadn't stopped them. Why _I_ hadn't fought harder. He had given everything for me and I just stood there. But he was still alive.

But that's when I gave up. The whole time I'd been struggling, but at that moment something snapped. I couldn't fight anymore. Not without Danny. That's when they raped me. Afterwards, I thought about just pretending it was a rape child, not ours. But that would be betraying him and everything he died for. He died for me and that baby. And they raped me while he was there bleeding to death, too weak to do anything but watch and beg for them to stop.

I never even felt it. Don't look at me like I'm lying, because I didn't. Not until—not until Danny stopped pleading for them to stop. You know what was worse than the pleading? I didn't figure out till afterward what that sound was. He was choking on his own blood. He couldn't breath because they'd nicked his windpipe and he was choking on his own blood. No! Don't you dare tell me to shut up. Because this time I'm going to tell it; this time you've pushed one time to many. Sucks to be you huh?

I know. You have no idea why I'm telling this to you now. But I do. I'm dying, Mom. I went online and ordered a cyanide capsules. Isn't the internet awesome? Ah, the advances of technology. I'm dying. I broke it open and took only half the powder. It tasted terrible but I forced myself to swallow it anyway.

I know I'm killing the baby. But it was his baby, too. And he's dead now. There's more sense in us joining him than him joining us being that he can't be here. Danny was the one who was excited about the baby. Not at first, of course. But after he had a while to adjust to the idea. He was so excited, he was going to be a daddy. Whether we had planned on it or not, he was taking it in stride. More than in stride, he was thrilled. Too bad he's dead now. Guess seventeen-year-olds weren't meant to have happily ever after.

I'm dying everybody. I hope you're incredibly proud of yourselves, Mom and Dad. You've pushed me to this point and I want you to know that. It would have been hard to live without Danny but there was no way I could live without him and put up with constant crap from you guys. I hope your proud of yourselves.

It's almost midnight, and I really hate to ruin all your fun. So I'm gonna go up to my room now and let you run damage control and assure all these _lovely_ people that this is my idea of a joke. Well, this time the jokes on you. I hope you think it's funny, cause I sure don't.

You want to know my New Year's resolution? Something I want to change? I wish that I wasn't stupid. I wish I had the common sense to do the right thing for once in my pointless life. I wish I had parents who cared about what happened to me. I hope that some day people won't hate people enough to kill them for no decent reason. That humanity improves enough that someone doesn't die watching their loved one suffer. I hope that everyone like you two drops dead.

And most of all, I hope you have the happy life that I'm never going to get. Because the worst part of this whole experience is the feeling deep inside that I deserved this. That I brought it upon myself. Because I was never the perfect, _normal _little girl you wanted. And I hope you're happy knowing that. I wish that you could love your grandchild that's never going to be born. Aren't you proud of me?

I know it's fifteen minutes or so early but Happy New Years, everybody! Hurray! Now you can all get plastered and think this was some substance-induced hallucination. I'm proud of you all. What you've become. I wonder how you can sleep at night. I can hardly live with myself. But that doesn't matter anymore. I feel better knowing that I'll never have to enter the _real world_. That wonderful status-quo we're all striving for.

Cause I know I'd never make it. But you know what I've finally realized. I don't need to even try. Because whether you like it or not, I was good enough for somebody. Danny loved me, even if you two never, ever could. I would have made a better mother than you. I would have loved my kid and they wouldn't have had to constantly strive for my approval. I would be a perfect person. Too late for that. I'm leaving you to damage control now. Hope you and your petty, little friends can forgive me. By the way, Mom and Dad. Happy New Years.


	17. Remember

_**Remember**_

**Summary: A fall romance leads to the death of one of the ghost world's most popular teen idols.**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Remember, Butch Hartman does. **

**Dedication: To SpookyGirl, for stating that the song was obviously about her death. I had already written this, and hearing her say that gave me the incentive to post it. **

She brushed back her bangs with the casual sweep of her hand. They were currently at the length where they were right in her field of vision. Amber was really starting to wish she hadn't gotten bangs with her summer haircut this year. She was growing them out and they were constantly in her eyes. She adjusted the second string and tried tuning again. The note came out much better this time. She shifted the acoustic guitar and leaned against the cracking dry wall.

She strummed about three chords and paused for a moment. Humming a few measures, she nodded and strummed the melody slightly different. "Sounds pretty," came the voice from across the tiny apartment. She turned her gaze from the window to Aaron.

"It's not supposed to be pretty," she saidwith a smile. "It's supposed to be dramatic. No one makes it with a pretty song."

He sat up in bed and grinned over at her. She couldn't help but smile back when he looked at her like that. "You'll make it. Record companies would have to be insane not to sign you."

The sixteen-year-old laughed and twirled her hair around her finger, propping her knee up to rest the neck of the guitar on. She was sure she had looked likea mess, but this morning-after-thing was new to her. Besides, she was sure Aaron couldn't care less what she looked like right now. The smile seemed to melt off his face as he stared at her for a little while longer.

"Go home, Ember." She stopped for a moment. He hadn't called her Ember in months. It had been a joke from when she dressed up as Cinderella for Halloween in sixth grade. Everyone said that Ember fit better for her. For some reason, the nickname had stuck.

The girl shifted and put the guitar back in the case, but didn't close it. She walked over and sat next to him on the bed. "Why? It's Saturday, we don't have to be anywhere."

He looked around the little dumpy apartment he had rented. Amber hated itwhen he did that. It made her feel so transparent, like he could see right through her. She followed his eyes, gazing at cracked, smoke-stained drywall. The single window in the apartment looked like it hadn't been washed in years and the floorboards looked like they could rot right out from under her feet. She knew why he lived like this though. It was hard for him to keep a job right now and being on your own at nineteen had to be difficult.

"Please, Amber, just go home." There was something in his eyes that scared her. Her fear must have been written on her face because his eyes seemed to soften slightly. "I just need some time to think, Ember. I'll call you later okay, I promise. Just go home. I can drop your guitar and stuff off later okay?"

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for half a second. "Okay," she whispered. She stood slowly, almost hesitating. "Talk to you later."

He nodded and she turned. She could feel his gaze locked on her as she left but couldn't bear to turn around.

* * *

Amber pulled out the key Aaron had given her and slowly turned the doorknob. "Aaron?" She called softly. It had been almost two weeks before Aaron had called her back, and then he had done it when he knew Amber was at school. She pulled the key from the lock and stepped into the apartment. The smell of liquor lay thick in the air and there were at least five empty bottles strewed across the table along with half-eaten food and some envelopes that looked like bills.

She took a few steps inside. Aaron obviously wasn't home, maybe she should just wait for him. Her quick scan for a clock ended up fruitless. She sighed. He couldn't be that long she would just sit and wait. She sat on the bed and hummed slightly to herself as she waited for him to come home, never noticing the open notebook lying at the foot of the bed.

* * *

Amber awoke to hands around her neck. She couldn't even remember falling asleep but there was no doubt she was waking up. Her eyes snapped open to meet Aaron's slightly glazed grey ones. She opened her mouth to talk but all that came out was a strangled, almostanimal-like sound. The rage in his eyes scared her. "How'd you get in here?" he demanded. But rather than loosening his grip so she could speak, his hand tightened.

Amber groped around with her right arm, trying to make her sleepy, oxygen-deprived brain focus. He lifted her head before slamming itback down into the bed. What was wrong with him? He'd promised that he'd protect her; he'd told her thathe loved her. "You think it's funny to play with me?"

She couldn't understand what was going on. It had nothing to do with her. "You just had to go prying didn't you?" Amber opened her mouth but could only make gagging noises. With that, the vicelike grip around her neck tightened. _I didn't,_ she thought desperately, praying that it would show in her eyes that she had no idea what he was talking about.

Amber focused on her hand and raisedit slightly, fingers curling gently. He freed a hand to bat it away, but before she could do anything to free herself, his hand was back around her throat. "It was really funny, wasn't it, Amb. We're all laughing now." His speech was slurred and reeked of the alcohol he had turned to. "But I'm going to be the last one laughing, aren't I?" Those were the last words that registered in the young teen's mind before darkness enfolded her.

* * *

It had been two months since Amber McClain's funeral. The school hadn't even taken the day off and the flowers were withered within the week. _So much for leaving a legacy_, thought Aaron sourly. He tipped up the bottle and let the last few drops burn their way down his throat. He let his eyes drift shut and focused on the pressure in his head. He'd left her body in an alley blocks from his apartment. Everyone had just assumed it was an act of random violence that had occured on the way to his house. No one had even raised a question to his involvement.

It had been days later that it had hit him that Ember probably hadn't read what was written in the book. She hadn't seemed to know anything about it. The truth was, Amber had been an experiment. He had been starting to wonder if she had even known that he was gay. In all truth, she really hadn't acted like it. If she had known, why didn't she run? She had no reason to stick around and wait for him. The only reason she would have stayed is if she really didn't know.

Through his muddled thoughts, something slowly started eking its way into his conscious. It was sort of a soft humming that he instantly placed, despite how tired and foggy he felt. It was that little song Amber had been writing. He opened his eyes and focused on the window. The light made his head hurt but he wasn't able to look the other way. The form stood by the dirty window leaning slightly against the pane with her back to him. "Amber?"

He tried to sit up but the pain in his head stopped him. "You know," the all too familiar voice stated slowly, "It's amazing how you can't write any lyrics for months and then suddenly it just comes." Aaron sat up slightly resting the back of his head against the headboard.

"What are you talking about," he murmured trying to get rid of the pain in his head by pressing his palm to it.

Amber didn'treply, just began humming again. He listened, mesmerized for a few moments. Any minute now he was going to wake up from this dream and it would all be over. "Like a bad dream in December, nothing but ashes remains." It was almost breathed rather than sung. Aaron focused harder, wondering if he had heard her right.

Amber turned and almost seemed to glide rather than walk. But once she was out of the light from the window and his eyes could focus, he noticed things about her that hadn't been seen before. The ligature marks on her neck showed purple against her almost grey skin. Her lips had a light blue-purple tint to them and her eyes seemed covered with a glassy layer. Aaron opened his mouth to say something but didn't.

Amber stared at him for a moment and he stared back fixedly. She seemed to get bored with looking at him and dropped her chin. She picked up a strand of blonde hair and twirled it around her finger. As she did so it seemed to turn into flame and wrap its way around her hand. She pulled it away and examined it. The fire reflected off her glazed eyes, making it seem surreal. After a moment of fascination she slammed her hand into the cheap, warn mattress which lit instantly.

* * *

The story premiered on the fifth page on the Amity Park Register. Two days later there was a two paragraph blurb on page eight about how there were still no leads on the fire that had claimed two lives and injured five others. That was the last any citizens thought about the fire of the apartment complex. The police officers would bring it up occasionally when they had nothing else to talk about.

Yet, the clue that no one found was folded up, under a rock, at the Amity Park Cemetery. The gravestone was inscribed with the years 1984-2000. The note, resting next to it, is written out on staff paper. The notes had never been written in but below the lines, spaced as if the melody had been penned in, were four stanzas.

_**It was  
It was September  
When showed the deadly fall  
To you I did surrender  
Two weeks, you didn't call**_

**_Your life goes on without me  
My life, a losing game  
But you should  
You should not doubt me  
You will remember my name_**

_**Ember, you will remember  
Ember, one thing remains  
Ember, so warm and tender  
You will remember my name **_

_**Your heart  
Your heart abandoned  
Your walls now perishing  
Like a bad dream in December  
Nothing but ashes remains**_


End file.
